Crazy Robot Inspection Stories

FIRST General Forum
#21

At one regional this year, there was a team who was still building their drive system all day on Thursday. We inspectors would check with them about every 30-40 minutes, and they would always say “we are ok, thanks for the offer to get us help, but we are fine”.

After the pits closed on Thursday, we went to look at their robot in more detail. They still did not have their drive system wired up. However, they had partially completed their neon light system, and they also had a Globe motor (illegal) and an old Window motor (illegal).

I left them a note, saying that these two motors were not allowed this year. One of the inspectors was assigned to them in the morning, and they finally were focused on getting their robot driving.

Andy B.

#22

One year, a robot inspector asked us to flip our power switch 180*, while asking us to keep the wire orientation the same way. I never did get that… :eek: :eek: :eek:

#23

Hey, even if it didn’t move, at least it was going to look cool, right? :smiley:

#24

My first year mentoring was for the 2008 Overdrive competition. Reading the rules (after the robot was finished) we discover the rules that state the light from the IFI controller must be visible from three free in front of the robot. The robot had an extremely low center of gravity and the IFI controller was on the bottom of the robot about 3/8” off the ground. The robot looked great and we didn’t want to cut it up to make the IFI visible. The rules stated that the “light” from the IFI board must be visible. We made a placard with the same wording as the on the IFI controller with a 3D printer and piped the “light” up with fiber optics to the placard. Al Skeirkiewicz probably remembers this one. The inspection judges said the IFI controller was not visible and said it did not pass. We argued that the rules state that the “light” must be visible and the “light” is visible. It was the actual light from the LEDs. In the end the judges said it was very clever idea and let us compete but told us that if we went to the national competition, we may not pass inspection. BTW we also won the GM Industrial Design award with that robot.

#25

In Oregon last year there was a team who behaved like that all day long on Thursday. By Friday morning they still did not have their wheels on the robot… the motor controllers were not wired up… they were in the first match… and with help from a team (I really wish I could remember which one) got through inspection and made it to the field in time.

-Jim

#26

Had a rookie team in Arizona this year, in great position for the inspectors to watch them. They come out of the crate–and I’m thinking, there is no way that they’ll pass inspection. Obvious ball control mechanisms above the bumper zone, active no less, and their bumper was a piece of PVC covered with something that wasn’t pool noodle and was held on by wires. To their advantage, they had used the kit frame and a lot of VEX metal.

1013 showed up and spent all day Thursday getting them more legal. Sometime around noon on Friday, they passed.

Oh, and the Arizona pits were held open an extra half-hour on Thursday, to let us finish the teams in the inspection line. Friday morning, we still had two teams who hadn’t started. They both got partials before the pits opened on a visual inspection.

#27

In 2004, 971 put all the fuses for the robot on the negative side of the victors, instead of the positive side. Needless to say, we spent a fair amount of Thursday rewiring that part of the bot.

#28

I got a million of em!
I am leaving the rookie stories out of this post since it is not really fair. So here goes…
Eight CIM motors. “Rules says you can use the KOP motors and identical spares.”
Non KOP motors because the KOP motors aren’t strong enough
Robot is 6-8 inches too long.
Robot is 150+ lbs because they used a bathroom scale and interpolated the readings for each wheel.
Robot is 136 lbs and the engineering mentor tells his students not to listen to the LRI, they will play anyway and no one can stop them. Queuers do not like robots with no inspection sticker.
Robots with two or more batteries.
Robot with a 2" x 40" pneumatic actuator, inspection turned it into ballast.
Fifteen wheels on the floor last year. OK, it passed but it didn’t drive very well.
Bumpers at last year’s elevation, in black, with no numbers, made out of 1x6 pine.
Circular saw blades for wheels, “But they really grab the carpet!”.
Aluminum box for chassis with the radio inside. Has been happening for years.
Battery used for counter weight on a moving arm to help hold robot on pipe. This was actually legal that year.
Chain sprockets used for ball handler. Reminded team of rule specifying no damage to field or game pieces.
Bumpers made of one pool noodle to conserve weight. Found steel inside bumper.
SUV winch for lifting with 1/2 HP motor. This year was not the first year for this.
Bumpers made out of stained and varnished 2x6 lumber. Furniture grade but not legal.
The entire robot from the 120 amp breaker on, wired with #18 wire. “We have tons of it so we used it.”
I could go on and on…

#29

Our electronics team wired the game controller wrong. It shouldn’t have passed inspection. Due to this we didn’t run throughout Traverse City. We also passed inspection at Wayne State. Shortly through Detroit some of the field crew found the problem.

It was a sad moment when we realized that the inspectors should have noticed the problem and not let us pass due to the issue.

#30

This year, a mentor walked up to me (inspector) in the pits:

“The team next to us showed up and dropped off their robot and left. It’s last year’s robot. I remember because we helped them build it here at last year’s event.”

Sure enough, in their pit was a robot that had slick wheels and a trailer hitch on it…

#31

I’ve always wanted to do that, because I know it would bother people. To bad my 2008 trebuchet with a battery counter weight got over ruled…

#32

  1. I inspected a robot… in Atlanta… that didn’t have a pressure relief valve anywhere in their pneumatic system. Fortunately they had it with them in their supplies, and were quite appreciative to have someone explain what it was and what it did. It wouldn’t have been crazy to see this at a regional… but in Atlanta? Thank goodness for inspections, eh?

  2. A crazy good story, though was the time we carelessly re-used a 3/4" pneumatic cylinder on our Rack’n’Roll robot that was either 1/2" too long or too short for the pneumatic specs of that year’s competition. It cleared tech in Portland no problem (hey… I’d missed it, too… it was a pretty minor thing) but got nabbed by the very careful inspectors at GTR. We had a spare at home that was the right size… but home was on the other side of the country.

Tristan Lall was the lead inspector. He took a look at the problem, pulled out his cell phone, made a couple calls and said, “Talk to ______ at ______. Here’s the address, they have a legal one waiting for you.” A mentor ran out at lunch, and we were legal that afternoon. The robot actually performed better with the slightly shorter stroke cylinder. Who woulda thunk it?

  1. I was at a competition where a team was 30 pounds overweight. Not a big deal… except they were an all-girls team and quickly became known as “The girls with the weight problem.” at least until we realized how easily that could be taken out of context. (If only I could shed weight as quickly as they did!)

Jason

#33
#34

In 2003 I was a rookie mentor on a legacy team (294, world champions in '01) at the Arizona Regional. At 6 PM on Thursday the robot had failed inspection a couple of times and we were working off the list of items needing fixing. The pits were open 'til 8 that evening, and I was asked to stay with a couple of students to finish up and get the robot inspected while the rest of the team went out to dinner. Just before the pits closed, we got the robot up to the inspection station, and found one more item needing fixing. The pneumatic system pressure gage was mounted under the robot facing the floor so it couldn’t be read! That’s how a rookie mentor pays his dues.

#35

Reminds me of the last team to pass at Arizona this year. They’d been trying to fix their pneumatics, they had a match coming up, and they thought they had it. Two inspectors (myself being one) were inspecting their robot, and each had one gauge. They power up…and both gauges read 120 PSI! OK, let’s dial it down to 60 PSI, guys. They did–and both gauges read 60 PSI. The first place we looked for the problem? The regulator. Sure enough, the input was going into an output, and I think the gauge was in the input slot–in short, 90 degrees from the way it should have been oriented. With a match coming up, we had them pull the compressor breaker. They later got their pneumatics working right and reinspected.

Oh, and another team had pneumatics–but had no vent valve and no relief valve. Uh-oh. The next time they came around, they had both.

#36

In the Israeli regional a team had passed inspection with their bumper perimeter not covering the entire frame perimeter due to having a rotating kicker. I saw this on the field and was very highly amused.

#37

Two items from our robot this year:

  • Both sets of bumpers weigh exactly the same - this drew a little surprise from the inspectors!
  • Al’s gonna hate this… but our radio is essentially buried in the middle of a big aluminum box this year. From testing though, we had no signal problems, and no problems on the field!
#38

I’m never quite sure what to think when our team has left a Championship inspector scratching his head but using the word, innovative. The actual sentence was, " I’ve never seen that before but it is definitely innovative."

It had to do with our shooter a few years back and eventually, it passed inspection. After that experience, innovative became one of my favorite words.

A side story to the experience - one of the pit crew members was a senior on the team but a rookie member. We still talk about his year on the team and the contributions he made towards the design and building of that robot. He had never been to the Championship before and it was a huge learning experience for him as an individual and as a member of the team. When we left Atlanta, he was better for it. A lot had to do with working with the inspector, listening to him, and with talking with and observing other teams. It’s one reason I hold ChrisH in such high regard. Because of the impact he made on a student’s experience in Atlanta.

Jane

#39

My freshman year(Aimhigh), our shooter had two motors on it, and we were 3 pounds over weight, and the specs said each motor was a 4 pound motor, so we took one off, re-weigh, and we were heavier than before…

#40

This year. Our weight was fluctuating between inspections without us changing ANYTHING. The scale was confirmed to not be reading exactly right, but the numbers were changing!

Let’s just say that parkay floors and standing too close to the scale = bad.