[Koko Ed]

Originally Posted by DonRotolo

I used it last year at Mount Olive for Robot Inspection and found it very useful. It makes the inspection manager's life much easier too.

There is a learning curve, which takes a little getting used to, and for inspections it assumes you are using the workflow generally suggested by FIRST. It makes it a LOT easier to keep track of teams, where they are (in the pits), where they are (in the process), and what each team still needs to pass final inspection. In this respect, it is somewhat better than paper.

In a different respect, it is far superior: Communicating. When the LRI on the field sees something, they snap a photo and set the team to "reinspect". Before the team even makes it back to the pits, an inspector is waiting for them, and knows exactly what to look at and help the team work through. Everything is stored, and can be referred to later.

Also, photos at weigh-in are proof of what was and wasn't on the robot. If a gizmo was added but not inspected, it's hard to refute a photo.

As for an Apple version, I vote no. A decent android tablet is very inexpensive compared to the least expensive iPad. Not worth the time and red tape, IMHO. At MAR events it is not BYO, the tablets are provided to volunteer staff. Standard hardware simplifies things.

They were giving out Nexus Tablets for us to use. I am highly against "renting out' expensive tablets to volunteers as they have a high probability of walking during the event. Give out the program to use on their own devices of find a less expensive alternative.