Robot Inspections

The robot inspection is the beginning of the day, where each team is expected to present their robot to FTAs and judges. These judges will be technical and familiar with FTC, the rules, and engineering. This is not a scored process, it is just pass/fail. You should not stress for your robot inspection, they are just verifying you are following the rules.

Before tournament day

This is the official checklist that the inspectors will use. You should walk through your robot before the tournament with this checklist. Understand that each of these rows are pass/fail. For the most part, rows are pass/fail. There is no "ooh it is super close".

The only exception from this rule is the robot size. Your robot is to fit within the 18x18x18 cube in its starting configuration. This means that your robot may grow once a match starts, but your robot has to fit in the cube when the timer starts. The exception lies in squishy materials (like wires, bands, and compliant wheels). You cannot bank on the fact that you can use this to make your robot larger than allowed, but if they are a few millimeters out and are able to be squished into the box, it will be permitted.

At the tournament

The robot inspection is broken into 2 parts: a robot inspection and a field inspection. A robot (hardware) inspection follows the checklist above, and the field inspection follows this checklist.

You should have no more than 4 teammates at the inspections. You will see teams that have the entire team up there, but it very much is a 'too many cooks in the kitchen' situation.

Bring batteries, your control system (control hub/phones and controllers), and any robot accessories. Backup parts are not necessary.