[Kims Robot]

Another thing... if the inspection station is open and ready, go and size & weigh your robot IMMEDIATELY after you take it out of the box. Sometimes your scale in the shop may not be the same as theirs, or your CAD modeling missed the placement of the flag holder and you are outside. Even if you are 100% certain you are good, or bad, see how you stack up with the REAL setup.

A little reason why... at RIT last year, we got there, found out our scale or theirs was 5lbs off... we shaved that, and just made it in under by the end of the day... and by end of the day, I mean we literally weighed our robot AS we were being thrown out the door... put it on the cart, and came back first thing the next morning. Friday morning, we all of a sudden were 3lb overweight again!! Luckily we ripped off the camera and a plastic panel and were legal, but it was crazy to see the calibration of the scale change that much over the course of a day!

And I've been an inspector before as well... let it be fun, let the kids use it as a time to really show off how much they have learned! I want to say that at least 75% of the inspectors are there to help you and can point you to other teams that can give you a hand if you need something, or will give suggestions on how to fix things.

Have fun & START EARLY!!!