[KenWittlief]

where are all the engineers in this thead?!

I dont see a problem with one or two people taking inventory on the parts right off the bat- thats what you do if you goto a remote site and pick up the parts in person, check the list to make sure nothing is missing, cause they can replace them on the spot

but if the kit was shipped to you and something is missing, they can fedex it to you overnight if necessary

but either way, the question isnt about inventory, its about 'looking' at the parts - and I stand by my original statement - its not POSSIBLE for any human being to look at a box full of cool parts, and then decide to NOT think about what they just looked at.

or to put it another way, if you aregoing to look at all the cool stuff in the kit, but you are going to mentally discipline yourself to not think about any of it while you try to decide WHAT your robot needs to do - then what is the point of looking at the parts on the first day then?! if you are not going to use that information, why are you spending time accumulating it (looking at the kit?)

I agree the kit needs to be inventoried. All the motors, controls and pnuematics also need to be tested - but the whole team doesnt need to do this, and the most important team effort is analysing the game and spec'ing out the big WHAT - because once you have decided WHAT you need to do to win, and WHAT your bot needs to do functionally, you cant go back and change your mind in a week or two - there is no time for that

establishing the WHAT is the cornerstone - the foundation on which the rest of the project will succeed or fail - you have to get the WHAT right - it should be the one task your whole team works on together and this IS the 1st thing you need to do to begin the engineering design cycle - anybody playing with the kit of parts during this critical time period is goofing off! :^)