[Godzilla!]

Background:
At both GLR & Detroit this year all robots plus the top 4 standby robots that were to compete in the eliminations were re-inspected for both weight and size.

I was approached by the Head Robot inspector and asked to come to the inspection station Saturday during lunch. Upon arriving, I found that all teams except one had passed inspection. The team that failed exceeded both the size and weight requirements.

This team was given a “Conditional Pass” late Friday morning so they could compete. They did not meet the requirements for size but told the inspectors they would make the required adjustments before competing and based on this were given an inspection sticker.

They did meet the weight requirements Friday morning time.

During the Saturday inspection it was determined that not only did the team not make the required adjustment for size but they actually increased their size. When the robot (without bumpers) was weighed it was found to have exceeded the weight requirements by 13 lbs!

I instructed the inspector to pull the inspection sticker and to tell the team they would not be able to compete unless they got a new inspection sticker.

After a short time period the team reweighed the robot and miraculously now met the weight requirements! As to what they removed I had no idea – could have been weights or the shooter mechanism.

It did take the team a number of tries before they met the size requirements.

When the team finally passed the inspection I asked for the team captain and found he was also the 8’th seed Alliance captain.

During our discussion I informed him that he was to inform the Alliance partners of the teams actions and if they made it to the finals they were to inform all competitors of the inspection results.

I also believe that the additional weight gave the team an illegal performance enhancement and could have been a direct reason why they were the 8’th seed thereby tainting all the teams wins. Given this, I suggested to him that the team should remove themselves from the afternoon competition and replace their robot with a more qualified standby robot.

Results:

The team competed in the eliminations and was eliminated in the first round.

To the best of my knowledge, the inspection results were not passed to the other teams

There was no remorse shown for the inspection results. I believe that the only concern shown by the team was that they got caught.


Conclusion:
Gracious Professionalism?
Concerns?
Rules? There are no rules allowing for retroactive disqualification if a team has been found to violate the robot requirements and I did not do so. There are no rules other than a valid inspection sticker to have kept the team out of the elimination rounds.

What Would You Do?

I would be interested to know opinions of the actions taken by this team and was this appropriately handled.

Sorry for the placement of this thread but I had tried to place this in a moderated area and I guess it didn’t work as I haven’t seen it and I believe that this is an important topic.

Ron Webb
Head Ref
GLR & Detroit