[sgreco]

This is an interesting topic of conversation, I'm not going to get into the rule as it has been discussed in many past threads, but I have a comment about the inspection process.

I want to begin by saying that inspectors have quite possibly the toughest job at a competition. They have to inspect every part of every robot, and they have only a finite amount of time to do so. They also have to deal with teams that have many problems and make sure they get on on the field to compete. I have a lot of respect for our inspectors.

That being said, I do have a question regarding inspection. I was a scout on my team 2007, 2008, 2009 and I spent a lot of time in the pit in 2010 looking at other robots. Every year I have read the rules, and pretty much known what's legal and what isn't. In 2007, 2008 and 2009 I had never seen what appeared to me as an illegal robot take the field. This year changed a little bit. My team attended WPI and Boston this year. I saw 2 teams at WPI with obvious bolt protrusions that were on the field playing and had passed inspection, they were not rookies. I saw 2 more teams with these bolt protrusion protrusion in Boston that passed inspection. I'm not going to mention any names, but in Boston I saw a team that passed inspection with a globe motor on there robot; globe motors aren't legal this year.

I'm curious under what circumstances do inspectors let teams go with such seemingly obvious illegalities? Has anyone else noticed things like this at their regionals, or in past years?

Honestly it doesn't really phase me much, but I figured I would share this with the CD community. Although it doesn't make a big difference, I saw teams in Boston and WPI work very hard all day Thursday to pass inspection and I can see how it how it may be frustrating to have worked so hard only to see a team with the same problem that didn't have to fix it.