[Jared]

Our team is very much a threaded fasteners team, though we have occasionally used rivets in a few spots. Our robot has many tapped holes and countersunk screws used in applications where rivets couldn't really be used.

We often find ourselves removing, replacing, or repairing parts of our robot. It's true that we could drill out a rivet and replace it, but it's often quite difficult to fit a cordless drill and a riveter in a very tight spot. On the other side, there are many different styles of allen wrenches that can be used to fit in almost any spot. We have ball end allen keys, t handle, and a set of allen keys for 3/8" socket wrenches. If you have a universal joint for the socket wrench, you can really fit the allen wrench into tight spaces.

The second disadvantage of rivets is that they will only grab one wall of the box tubing. That's okay for light loads, or if you use a million of them. If you weld a few threaded inserts into your box tubing, and use a few 1/4-20's, you really cut down your assembly/disassembly time.

Our elevator assembly this year is a perfect example of quick assembly.
To disassemble it, you must remove 7 threaded fasteners.
You remove one 10-32 to release the chain and 6 1/4-20's to remove the 75" tall 1" x 2" uprights.
I don't see how this could be achieved with rivets.