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...What I have noticed this year is that FIRST inspections have really been lax in terms of use of illegal material.
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Joe: I noticed that too. At MMR, we were told that all of the corners on our robot were too sharp. Rather than filing them down we were told to tape them up, and that unless they were
taped, the robot would not pass inspection. Along with taping up every corner on our bot, we were told to put tape over every bolt sticking out, also. We asked the inspector what tape he wanted us to use and the response was "Any kind of tape you want."
So I asked, "Can we use electrical tape?"
"Yes."
"Masking Tape?"
"Yes."
"How about Duct tape?"
"Yes."
"Duct tape!?"
"Yes. As long as the corners and bolts are covered any kind of tape is fine."
We wound up taping our corners and bolts with electrical tape, figuring that at least electrical tape is legal to use on the robot (though technically only as an insulator). Electrical tape is so thin, it doesn't do much for dulling the corners, but we taped them up so we could pass inspection. Note to all teams (especially rookie teams): From what I've seen and heard, at regional inspection a lot of things got by the inspectors. It probably (and hopefully) won't be that way at nationals. For my teams sharp corners problem: the first thing we did when we got back was look for caps for the ends of our Bosch and caps for all of the bolts on our robot - no more electrical tape!
- Katie