[Al Skierkiewicz]

Andrew,
I don't know how to make this easier for you. I know it won't help to tell you that your team is not the only one that has missed some of these things. I have seen teams this year with bumpers at last year's height. I have seen Globe motors, van door motors, mechanisms outside of the bumper zone, active ball returns and metal on the carpet. I tried to list everything I knew that would get teams in trouble and issues that I and others were seeing from week one during inspections. (See Al's Annual Inspection List) I know I will see more of these issues in Atlanta.
For inspectors it matters not if the infraction is game related or a competitive advantage. Rules is rules and that's what we check for. For me inspections level the playing field (relative term), keep you from damaging the field, your team, or other teams, and prevents your robot from self immolation. Inspections are what we need for everyone to have a quality experience, every weekend, every event. I will not deny that some rules cause us headaches in inspections (frame perimeter cough cough) but we inspect them just the same and suggest to teams how they can easily fix them when they occur.
How do teams prevent these issues? They assign a student to check the rules and self inspect the robot before ship. They make it a requirement that every student on the mechanical and electrical sub teams read the rules, know them and are tested on them throughout the season. They regularly check the Team Updates and the Q&A every few days. I can tell you that we have made design changes and strategy changes based on answers in the Q&A and have asked our fair number of Q&A questions. If you want to be competitive, that is what is required. Sometimes we take some heat from other teams for this but we are following the rules that are available to all and what our research has shown us. Then we attend events and watch the forums and webcasts to see what is going on in other regions to see if will be necessary to make changes to strategy or design. Then we check each other constantly. We never stop talking, checking, designing, strategizing or questioning ourselves or our robot until August. We don't beat ourselves up for mistakes, we learn from them and move on.