I want to remind everyone that Inspections will begin during the Wednesday open pit from 6-9 PM. We will have about thirty inspectors available to open Bag and Tag teams and start inspections. Sixty will be available on Thursday morning.
With the vastly reduced inspection time of this year’s event, we can only inspect all robots with your help. So we are asking this…
Please come and get your your robot inspected as it comes out of the crate or soon after. If you plan to make changes, please do so after your first inspection. It will be easier for us to reinspect your changes.
Make sure you have your BOM printed out or on a computer that the inspector can reference during the inspection process.
Do not wait until 12:30 PM Thursday to come and get inspected. We will do everything we can to get you ready for your first match. We are not miracle workers.
Teams that are not inspected because they are not ready, are subject to Team Update 16. “9.3.6 Seeding Point Exceptions
A TEAM that does not field a ROBOT because it has not passed inspection will receive zero seeding points and zero coopertition bonus.”
Teams must be reinspected any/every time they make changes to their robot, anytime during the weekend.
Random reinspections will take place on Thursday and Friday so that we can be sure every robot is compliant for Saturday. We want to be sure nothing is missed that would affect your ability to play on Saturday afternoon.
Remember that you have the right to question a Robot Inspector decision. Please check with the Lead Robot Inspector on your division.
Things that have troubled teams this season are: Bumpers (height and construction), bumper covers that fall outside the bumper zone or are not tight, bumpers that are held on with velcro, tywraps or other non-suitable fastening system. Batteries must be held firmly in the robot at all time, buy a woven belt (camping stores) and secure it to robot frame. Frame Perimeter will be checked, use 1/4" plywood if you need to, but **nothing **outside of the bumper zone may project beyond the frame perimeter unless it is a moving robot part that is subject to the two second rule. Make sure you have only the maximum number and type of motors allowed in the robot rules. No Globe motors and no van door motors are allowed this year.
I ask other Lead Robot Inspectors to add to this list.
I had a quick question and I thought that this thread would be an appropriate place to ask it and I’m sure we won’t be the only team in this boat. We booked travel decently in advance for our team to attend the championship event (before the updates about working on your robot came out) and because of this we will have no students for the 6 pm-9pm period on Wednesday night. However several of the mentors were able to switch our flights to be available for this period of time.
In the interest of lightening the backlog for Thursday morning, in your opinion how much inspection is appropriate to get done Wednesday night? We usually have the students walk the inspectors through the robot, however it would be great to wake up Thursday morning and be already inspected, and be able to use the filler line.
We will be in the same boat - ultimately it is more valuable to the team that the robot is inspected ASAP than for our students to go through inspection themselves (they have already done it twice). Although, at the very least, a student “captain” must sign off on inspection before it is complete.
We usually walk through inspections with students to get them involved and experienced with talking with (nasty) adults. Two signatures are required but I will ask the question and get back to you.
John, we are not umpires, we can still see.
First of all, a big thanks to Al Skierkiewicz for all his time and hard work to turn a difficult situation into a managed situation. You didn’t hear it from me, but this is why Al’s paycheck is on the order of 20X more than the rest of us inspector types.
This is going to work just fine but It will take effort from all involved. Please come to this event with a spirit of cooperation with the inspection process. The thing I want to highlight is that our intention as inspectors is to get you onto the playing field ASAP. We’re going to be looking for the gross violations first. Illegal components, bad wire sizes, too big, too heavy, sharp stuff, chemical weapons, etc, will prevent us from allowing you to proceed with this goal. Having said this, please don’t be surprised if we come back after you get “stickered” and ask you to correct more minor issues. DON’T PANIC, we’re not shutting you down but you are expected to follow the rules at all times. As Al said, if you get called on something and you disagree with, ask for the Lead Inspector’s opinion. That’s what we’re there for and it could be that you’re right (which would save you time and effort). On the other hand, if the inspector is right, agree to the task without a lot of discussion and argument and let that inspector (and your pit crew) move on.
This is going to be an exercise in time management from both points of view. Please do your part to make this a success.
I am excited to join Al, Ed, and all of the other hard working inspectors in Atlanta this year. Usually, I get selfish in Atlanta and focus on AndyMark business and mentoring team 45, but this year I will also be helping out the inspection process on Wednesday evening and Thursday morning. This will definitely be a fun time.
Al’s idea if inspecting right away, then making robot changes, and then getting the changes re-inspected is fabulous. If many teams heed his advice, this will go smoothly.
Based on some of the reports I have been receiving, I want to remind everyone that there are certain robot components that cannot be modified.
Thou shalt not modify, motors (except mounting holes, wires and output shafts), electrical components (controllers, spikes, Crio, Classmate, wireless, servos and specified other parts) and pneumatic parts (except to remove a mounting pin if provided). Do not remove the cases from electrical parts, in order to fit them in some where including the Jaguars and the wireless access point. There is no custom made pneumatic components and the size of the actuators is still limited to maximum of 24" stroke by 2" bore.
Just because some one has to be “that guy” I’m going to ask. What if you don’t get inspected in time for a match because of understaffing/compressed time table?
I can just picture my team asking for an inspection at say 10am on Thursday, a reasonable lead time of 3 hours before matches start, and there being such a backlog at that point we don’t see an inspector until 1pm. I think this is a real and valid concern for those of us who do to travel will not have students available on Wednesday night. I just want to make sure the concern is heard and discussed ahead of time.
Pete,
We will do all we can to get you inspected. By 10:30 or 11 AM we will start prioritizing by match schedule. Those in the first matches will have the highest priority to get inspected. If I or one of the other leads shows up in your pit with our “mad mom face”, it is time to stop and get inspected.
We will be in contact with the division field head refs and passing info to them. If we are overwhelmed it is not your fault. I do not expect a problem with 30 inspectors in the pit on Wednesday evening and 60 on Thursday.
Thanks for the answer Al. As some one who has inspected and knows how long it takes to do a thorough inspection I had some concern. I also know what we have to get done as a team to be battle ready. While we may not be first through the line we don’t want to be last either. As a team that cares about doing things right we wanted to make sure we asked our questions now so there would be no surprises when we get there.
BOM submission at CMP is being discussed in another thread. According to <R89>, a printed copy of the BOM is not acceptable. Item #2 in the above LRI Champs Inspection List specifies a printed copy (or a copy on a computer) of the BOM be available at the time of inspection.
Is the BOM hard-copy (or soft-copy open on a computer) for reference during inspection an additional requirement on the teams at Championship? If a team does not furnish a paper copy and does not have the BOM on their own computer (like their Classmate), will inspectors need to review electronic BOMs on the inspection station computer in order to pass inspection? I worry that the latter approach will create a big inspection bottleneck.
As an inspector, having the BOM in-hand during inspection is useful. I can more easily check for completeness of the BOM while the robot is under my nose (i.e. are costs for a fifth CIM included or how much did that COTS worm gearbox cost?). I think both hard-copy and electronic versions should have been required throughout the season, but that’s not how <R89> was written.
Some teams (like ours) generate their BOMs on separate computers using Excel. They just might not be aware of the Open Office CALC spreadsheet tool on the Classmate.
If you have the driver station Classmate (which you should have with the robot for inspection), then you have Open Office, which will let you view and update the Excel file.
I’ll suggest that it really helps (and really makes things go faster) if you can refer to the rulebook and Q&A before going to talk to the LRI, and then take the rule and or Q&A reference along with you for the discussion.
This is why I download latest revision of the rulebook to a flash drive before the competition… and, this year… realized that since my cell phone reads PDF’s, that I could have downloaded it to that, too.
Is there a compiled Q&A that teams can take with them? I know that it is usually available at the inspection station, but thats going to be a pretty busy place this year!
Jason
P.S. I’ll add one “new” thing that some inspectors might miss… mitred or bevelled bumpers ARE legal this year. Having the rule book available helped us clear that one up quickly in Seattle.
