The tough part was Chris Paulik was laughing so hard but trying to hold it in, that the scale was actually moving around a pound or two. I kept telling the team that their robot appeared to be breathing and that they must have added a “foot” of something to the robot and they still didn’t get it.
Well guys we got another one!
I don’t really have any crazy inspection stories but, In 2008 we got our first regional and were informed that all of our drive motors had been wired incorrectly… So, it took us about 2 hours to rewire everything before we could compete.
My favorite inspection moment ever was at the Championship in 2008. We put our robot on the scale and weighed 120.1 lbs. Before the inspector had a chance to say anything I ripped (zip tied on) a 12" x 8" piece of decorative lexan off of the back of the robot… We weighed 120 lbs even. (She then proceeded to tell me that the scales were slightly off and anything within a tenth of a pound was acceptable…)
What rule says that? the only rule about bumper marking is:
<R15> Teams shall display their team number on the BUMPERS in four
locations at approximately 90-degree intervals around the perimeter of the ROBOT. The numerals must be at least 4 inches high, at least in ¾-inch stroke width and in a contrasting color from its background. Team Numbers must be clearly visible from a distance of not less than 100 feet, so that judges, referees, and announcers can easily identify competing ROBOTS.
If an inspector says something is illegal on your robot, it is your responsibility to confirm it. Ask the inspector (politely and respectfully) to show you the rule in question and explain how you violate that rule. If you don’t agree with his or her interpretation, talk to the head inspector. If he agrees with the inspector, go fix your problem.
The inspector training material and the actual rules don’t always match up 100%. Some of these issues stem from the training material being slightly out of date or different because of when it was written. If the inspector is not fully involved with a team build they may not realize some of these differences, but the published rules are the governing document per inspector training.
In the case of the number color issue though I believe that stemmed from a Q&A that most people didn’t see.
I looked up the Q&A you mentioned, and it specifically allows the use of two colors (as long as the main color meets the size requirements). Again, all teams should be prepared to defend their position with documentation.
Rule <R15> requires that the body of the number (the part that is ≥4 inches tall and with ≥3/4 inch stroke width) be of “a” (single) contrasting color. Adding small borders of a highly contrasting color around the external perimeter of the number for the purposes of increasing the contrast and clarity of the number would not violate the rule, as long as the addition of the contrasting border does not reduce the size or stroke width of the body of the number.
I think my favorite was when I ran inspections at Championships in 2000. We sat down in our volunteers meeting at the end of the day Thursday to review everything and what needed to be done for tomorrow.
Eric from FIRST to me: “How are Inspections going?”
Me: “Good, we are done.”
Eric from FIRST: “How many robots are left to finish inspecting?”
Me: “None”
Eric from FIRST: “Oh, how many are left for the morning?”
Me: “None, they are all inspected!”
Eric from FIRST Baffled Look on his Face
They had never finished ALL of the inspections on Thursday before!!
Second Favorite - I was an inspector at the Long Island Regional in 2001 and there was this crazy orange & black rookie team from Rochester NY that had THREE different robot configurations, they came up to do weight and size, and I had to figure out how to scribble all this on the inspection sheet. They put the last one in the box, and it was out by like 6 inches! Their crazy lead mentor 
tried kicking it and shoving it and pushing the box. I laughed and suggested they had time to go back and fix it. I think they came back 6 more times (made me laugh every time) before either giving up on it or just barely making it (Jason remind me!). At Championships they saw me walking by and wanted to grab me for a photo saying “I was their nicest robot inspector ever” or something like that. I still need to dig out a copy of that photo
At GSR this year we were told by the inspector that we needed to have a sticker with our team name on it. He was misinterpreting <R14>, but to appease him (and to have a little fun) we took a band-aid from our first aid kit, stuck it on the robot, and wrote “Plan B” (our team name) on it.
… we passed inspection 
No really ‘crazy’ stories here, though I can relate to Al’s anecdote about using all 12-gauge wire just because we have a ton of it.
And we’ve definitely helped several teams put together their box on wheels. I originally thought someone was talking about 116’s rookie year and their first trip to the Championships in Orlando. Here Dave recounts tales of doing just that (but for different reasons) and how a team helped them put it together.
2007, we were 0.1lbs under the limit. The inspector at VCU kept messing with us by tapping the robot, making it go over the limit by 0.1lbs.
In general in FTC, zipties and loose cords fail the sizing rules for teams just as much as teams who have frame members beyond 18". It’s more of a “doh!” moment though.
DC Regional, 2010. The lead inspector told us his interpretation of the intent of the digitization of the BoM, which was so that FIRST could create statistics based upon usage and create next year’s KOP accordingly. So as we were off to create an Excel file that would meet those implied needs, he tells us ‘Just scan your paper copy in. They didn’t specify what digital format!’
I’m pretty sure we can this year. Our robot only weighs about 83 pounds without them.
The words “a contrasting color” are in the rule. Q&A referenced that rule and used the phrase “a single contrasting color”, leading to the inspectors’ interpretation that having a border of another color did not satisfy the rules.
A later Q&A made contrasting borders around the numbers okay.
Thanks for finding that. I didn’t have time to read through and see where that one came from even though I knew it had been clarified to allow the contrast.
70lbs with both.
You seriously need to add functionality… As long as you can do it in allowed build periods, of course!
Not always. If the robot meets their goals why should they add functionality? I would prefer not to do something than to sacrifice doing something I already do. Now, perhaps improve functionality… You guys have a lot of weight to play with, why not make sure your kicker works better or your ball manipulator works great?
Speed racer weighed 65lbs in the end and worked perfectly. Our team decided not to focus on hanging if it meant we would have mediocre ball kicking and handling. So we avoided it and still ended with a rather good robot.
Lower weight can be a large part of your functionality if your function is to be very agile. It’s all part of strategy. If you can outrun the big guys and do what you want then good for you.
I was one of those SWAT members, They showed up weighing under 65 pounds and didn’t even ship the robot, they just carried it in to the competition. I was waiting on them to hand them their schedule of practice matches and when they finally arrived I saw that the batter connector wasn’t connected to the battery.
I asked them how it was supposed to run and the student there said that it ran great if you connected the motors directly to the leads of the battery…
The mentor had only brought 3 students because he read that was the maximum amount of students allowed to compete.
Thanks to an insane mount of help from Volunteers, local teams. I’d have to look back at the pictures to see which teams exactly were helping, I know 997, and 488, and the team across from them in the pits, this was a high number team, three thousand something, the name and number are still not coming to me. After many hours and more than a few trips to the machine shop they did end up competing and winning the rookie inspiration award.
Correct! I was with the neighbors to the left (3210). I looked over a few times to see if they needed anything, but there were always a dozen+ people there! I was very impressed with how they did, but more so with the amount of people who helped out. Definitely GP at its finest.
In 2007, our rookie year, somebody donated a 400 foot roll of green 14 gauge wire. We used it every place we could, including for four runs through our 5 foot arm. When our inspector said that the wire didn’t meet the color coding requirements, we produced the rule he was referring to and pointed out that it only applied to wires on the input terminals of the speed controllers. He then decided that green wire wasn’t allowable because green usually stands for ground. As a rookie team, we didn’t know to escalate the problem to the lead inspector, and ended up rewiring the whole robot on practice day. Another team donated the ~50 feet of red and black wire. I wish we remembered which team that was so that we could thank them…
This was also the year that we assumed fitting in the sizing box meant fitting in the sizing box, not sitting in the sizing box without touching any of the walls. That was fun.
I was there for that. There robot looked like a mini-fridge. We felt so bad when they saw what there weight was.