Quote:
Originally Posted by Richard
No, I don't think a lead robot inspector has the authority to impose a blanket requirement that all teams at an event must complete inspection before participating in practice matches.
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As to applicability of <R112> (or any other rule) only at inspection time, my view is that any time is inspection time. Any time that he/she suspects a safety related problem with any robot, any of several key volunteers and FIRST staff members present at the event can require inspection or re-inspection of that robot.
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I think we're basically in agreement then. I was concerned that you were implying that a lead inspector could decide to mandate that all teams in attendance must pass inspection (full inspection, not just safety stuff) before practicing.
I still don't like the idea of punishing teams who don't inspect early by not allowing them to be fill-ins, though, because that is essentially punishing them for something that is not against the rules. I'd prefer to handle that a little more informally (such as by approaching teams in the queue for fill-in who aren't inspected and reminding them, again, that if they aren't inspected by Friday morning they can't compete, and that if everyone waits until the last minute to get inspected then the inspectors aren't liable if they can't get them all done). Frequent reminders via the pit announcer (annoying as that can be) and the standard, unsolicited visit by robot inspectors seems good enough for me - people on these teams are old enough to make their own time management decisions, and if they choose poorly then they'll miss out on their first qualification match and will likely learn something in the process (and not let that happen again).