What kind of financial documentation is required to compete in the competition?
You basically need a list of all parts you didn’t get from the kit of parts, the individual prices for each additional item (including the cost of any machining hours outside of your team), and the total cost of all the items. You need to show that one single item didn’t cost over 400 dollars and that the combined cost was less than 3500 dollars. Additional speed controller and spikes from innovation first don’t count towards the 3500 limit.
uh oh… i think we have some work to do…do they check that even if you’re WAY under. like if they look at our robot they will know in 1 second that we are not over…plus, i did read the book, but does it count if it has value but its something that a team member has like if a team member or the school randomly has a steel bar or something?
Yes they do check. It does not have to be typed but they need a list. If the part is scrap, you have to assign value to it based on a fair price. If you need a fair price try http://www.mcmaster.com and search for the part you got cheaply.
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PLEASE TAKE CARE OF THIS BEFORE YOU GET TO THE REGIONAL!!! As an inspector last year I was appalled at the number of teams that did not have simple things like the parts list and the numbers on their robot handled BEFORE they got there. It’s not that hard, and we can generally tell by looking if you’re even close, but the rules say you have to have it, so have it.
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If you found a useful piece in a scrap bin, or other place where you can’t easily document the price, then you just have to come up with a reasonable estimation of the value. The hard part is figuring out just what it is you have. If you know what it is (ie. 1018 steel, 6061 aluminum, etc) then just use the price of something similar in a catalog. If you know it’s a mild steel, or a stainless then use a price for a similar class of material. One stainless generally isn’t that much more expensive than another. And if it’s a piece of generic steel, then I doubt you could have enough on your robot to put you over the cost limit.