🏆 Competition · All Roles · Beginner

Pre-Competition Robot Audit

Run this checklist the night before your tournament — not the morning of. Every red item found at 9pm is fixable. Every red item found at 7am is a crisis.

When to use this: The evening before each tournament. This is separate from the Robot Pre-Check (which runs before every practice session). This audit is deeper and covers competition-specific readiness.

🖨 Print Checklist

Audit progress

0 / 0 items checked

🔧 Hardware — Engineer

🔧HardwareEngineer

All screws tight — especially drivetrain bolts and cross-brace mountingUse your fingers to test each screw. Loose screws cause intermittent failures, not obvious ones. All shaft collars securedSpin every shaft by hand. A shaft that slides axially will fail in matches. Green Loctite or a second collar. All motors spin freely with no grinding or catchingDisconnect from Brain. Turn by hand. Any resistance that wasn't there before needs diagnosis. Intake / mechanism moves through full range of motionCycle it 5 times. Listen for catches. Watch for collisions with the frame. All pneumatic fittings tight, reservoir charged to max, no audible leaksPressurize and leave for 5 minutes. Any pressure drop = a leak to find tonight. Robot fits within 18×18×18 sizing cubeMeasure again after this week's changes. Even small additions can push you out of spec. No legally questionable parts, modifications, or rubberbandsCheck the current season's rules. When in doubt, remove it tonight — not at inspection.

⚡ Electronics — Engineer

⚡ElectronicsEngineer

All motor ports firmly connected — wiggle test each cableLoose port connections are the #1 cause of "the robot just stopped" failures at events. All sensor cables routed and strain-relievedEvery cable should have slack. Cables under tension fail when the robot takes impact. Battery connector not cracked or bentInspect the connector pins. A damaged battery connector loses power mid-match. Competition battery fully charged and labeledLabel your competition battery differently from practice batteries. Know which one to grab. Backup battery charged (if using a second battery for pit rotation) Radio LED is solid green when battery connectedBlinking = not paired. This needs to be resolved tonight, not at the venue.

💻 Software — Engineer + Programmer

💻SoftwareEngineer

Competition code uploaded and tagged in version controlTag it: git tag competition-[event-name]. Never lose your competition code. Auton selector tested — each slot runs the correct routineSelect every slot and run 3 seconds. Verify the robot does what the name says. All autonomous routines run to completion without errorsRun your primary and backup autons twice each. Time them. Note the actual score. Driver control tested — all buttons and macros workDrive for 2 full minutes. Activate every macro. Test partner controller if applicable. No active debug prints that could slow the programSearch for printf / std::cout in your competition code. Remove before uploading.

🎮 Driver Readiness

🎮DriverDriver

Did at least one full 1:45 practice match today or yesterdayYour first match at the tournament should not also be your warmup. Controller fully chargedV5 controllers can run low after extended practice. Charge overnight. Pre-match checklist reviewed and memorizedYou should be able to run your pre-match sequence without reading from a sheet. Knows the primary and backup auton strategy for tomorrow

📊 Strategist Readiness

📊StrategyStrategist

Scouting sheet loaded and ready (device charged)Open the scouting sheet. Confirm it saved from last event if applicable. Team list for the event downloaded from Robot EventsKnow who you're competing against before you arrive. Qual schedule checked — know your first 3 match opponents Notebook entries current — no missing sessions since last event

🎒 Pit Bag — All Roles

🎒Pit EquipmentAll

Laptop in bag, fully charged V5 Brain cable (micro-USB) in bag Spare motors (minimum 2) in pit bag Hex keys (metric set) + slotted screwdriver Spare screws, shaft collars, standoffs Printed notebook (or device with notebook loaded offline) Team banner / identification ready (required at most events)

Rule: If any item is red tonight, it must be fixed before you leave. A broken robot brought to a tournament is just a very expensive paperweight. Fix it now.

⚙ STEM Highlight Engineering: Pre-Mission Verification & Checklist Discipline

Pre-competition audits apply the same verification protocol used in aviation preflight checks and surgical safety checklists. Research shows that expert practitioners benefit as much from checklists as novices, because under high stakes, working memory degrades and attention narrows. A 24-point audit run consistently before every event eliminates the "we knew that" failure class entirely.

🎤 Interview line: “We run our pre-competition audit 24 hours before every event, not the morning of. This gives us time to fix anything we find. Our audit has caught a loose drive shaft bearing, a cracked intake spacer, and a misconfigured auton selector — all things we would have "known about" but missed without the checklist.”

Your pre-competition audit reveals a loose bearing on the drive shaft. You have 45 minutes before check-in. What is the correct response?

⬛ Skip the repair — it might hold for one more event

⬛ Fix it immediately and document the repair — known mechanical issues that go unaddressed become match failures

⬛ Ask the head referee for permission to fix it after check-in

📝

Notebook entry tip: Tournament Prep — Red slide — Run the audit at least 24 hours before every event and paste the completed checklist into your Tournament Prep entry. If any items failed, document what was fixed and how long it took. A completed audit checklist — especially one that caught a real problem — is one of the strongest pieces of evidence that a team competed with professional preparation.

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