No one steals a robotics kit. It is dismantled in good faith - a motor borrowed for a prototype, a sensor lent to the bench opposite, a controller taken home over half-term to flash firmware - until the case that goes back on the shelf holds whatever nobody needed that week. By the time competition season starts, the programme nominally owns four kits and can build two robots, and the gap is discovered the evening before a scrimmage. This guide is about keeping kits whole: kit-level records, a checklist that gets checked, and a season-long loan with a real end date.
What you will learn
- Kits disappear one motor at a time
- Make the kit the asset
- What to record per kit
- Labelling cases, controllers and chargers
- Check kits out for the season
- The post-season reset
- Tools that make this easier
- FAQ
Kits disappear one motor at a time
Robotics programmes combine every condition that erodes equipment: parts are identical across kits, so a borrowed motor has no way home; deadline pressure before competitions makes “borrow now, sort later” the rational choice; gear is often grant-funded, so no individual feels the cost; and the summer break wipes everyone’s memory of where things went. Add a makerspace culture where helping the next bench is the whole point, and the result is predictable - the parts still exist, somewhere, but no kit is complete. The goal is not to stop sharing. It is to make sharing leave a trace.
Make the kit the asset
Tracking every beam and gear individually collapses under its own admin. Tracking nothing guarantees hollowed-out cases. The sustainable level is the kit:
- One asset record per kit, with a parts checklist as its contents. The checklist is what makes “complete” a verifiable claim instead of an impression.
- Individual records for the serialised and the expensive: the controller or brain, chargers and battery packs. These are the parts that wander furthest and cost most to replace.
- A check-in / check-out habit at the kit level, so the record updates when the kit moves - not when someone remembers.
Spare parts bought in bulk live in a labelled spares bin with a simple count, feeding kits as the checklist demands.
What to record per kit
| Field | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Kit ID | What the case label says and what teams quote at the bench |
| Platform and generation | Mixed-generation kits look identical until a part does not fit |
| Contents checklist | The document that turns “looks about right” into “complete” |
| Controller serial | The one part worth recording, insuring and firmware-tracking on its own |
| Condition and missing parts | Gaps recorded at return become a parts order, not a mystery |
| Assigned team and mentor | A named adult plus a named team beats “the robotics club has it” |
| Loan period | Season-long, due after the last competition - never open-ended |
| Purchase price and funding source | Grant reporting asks what the money bought and where it is now |
Labelling cases, controllers and chargers
- The case gets a QR label on the outside and the kit ID written large beside it. The scan opens the kit’s record; the big ID settles “whose case is this” across a crowded workshop without anyone reaching for a phone.
- Controllers, chargers and battery packs get their own small labels. These are the most-borrowed items in any programme and the most expensive to replace quietly.
- Inside the lid, tape the parts checklist and a photo of the correctly packed kit. “Pack to the photo” makes an incomplete return visible in seconds, even to a student who has never seen the checklist.
Tip: number battery packs and chargers as pairs that live with a specific kit. Mixed-up chargers are how battery health problems travel between teams and how one kit’s dead pack becomes everyone’s problem.
Check kits out for the season
Weekly sign-outs are too much friction for a programme that meets twice a week; no record at all is how the cases hollow out. The workable loan period is the season:
- One checkout per kit, per team, with the mentor as the named responsible adult and a due date set just after the final competition.
- Mid-season part swaps get recorded against the kits involved - thirty seconds that saves the post-season archaeology of working out which kit donated its gyro.
- Anything leaving the building - a kit going home for the holidays, a controller out for firmware work - gets its own short checkout, the same discipline schools apply to Chromebooks.
The overdue list after the final event is the recall list, with names attached.
The post-season reset
The fortnight after the last competition decides what next season looks like. Recall every kit by its due date and check contents against the checklist with the team present - they know where the missing servo went, and in October they will not. Record condition and battery health, consolidate every gap into a single parts order while grant money is still in the budget year, and retire genuinely dead gear in the register rather than deleting it - the purchase history is what the grant report and the next funding application are built from.
Tools that make this easier
The default tool is a parts spreadsheet maintained by one heroic mentor - which works until that mentor graduates with the seniors, and the workbook becomes an heirloom nobody updates. Spreadsheets also record states, not events: they can say a kit is “with Team 3” but not who took it, when, or what was in it at the time. The fuller argument is in why spreadsheets fail for asset tracking.
AMPthilly keeps the record where the kits are: each kit gets a profile with its checklist, photos and purchase details; checkouts assign it to a named person with a due date and an overdue list; the QR label on the case opens the record in any phone browser, right at the bench - no app to install on students’ phones; and damage gets reported as a ticket with photos, tied to the kit permanently. Every checkout, return and swap lands in the audit history, which is the season-to-season memory the programme otherwise loses. The free plan covers 3 users and 25 assets - a small programme’s kits, controllers and chargers fit comfortably.
FAQ
How do you keep track of robotics kit parts? Track the kit as one asset with a parts checklist, and verify the checklist at every return. Counting every beam and standoff individually is unsustainable; counting nothing guarantees cannibalised kits. The middle path - kit-level records, a printed checklist in the case, and a recorded check-in at season end - catches missing motors and sensors while they are still findable in a toolbox.
Should every robotics component have its own asset tag? No. Label the case, the controller or brain, the chargers and the battery packs - the items that are expensive, serialised or prone to wandering. Structural parts, wheels and fasteners are covered by the kit checklist instead. A good rule: if a part has a serial number or costs real money to replace on its own, it gets its own label; otherwise it belongs to the kit.
How long should teams keep kits checked out? For the season, with a due date tied to the last competition rather than left open-ended. A season-long loan to a named team and mentor keeps responsibility clear without weekly admin, and the due date triggers the post-season reset: contents checked, batteries assessed, and missing parts ordered while the grant budget and everyone’s memory are still warm.
What is the best way to label a robotics kit? A QR label on the outside of the case with the kit ID written large beside it, plus individual labels on the controller, chargers and battery packs. Scanning the case label should open the kit’s record - who has it, what it contains, what is missing. A photo of the packed layout taped inside the lid makes an incomplete return obvious at a glance.
How do you run an end-of-season robotics inventory? Recall every kit by its due date, check contents against the checklist with the team present, record condition and missing parts, and turn the gaps into one consolidated parts order. Doing it within days of the final competition - not in the autumn - means parts are still in toolboxes and bedrooms, mentors remember what was swapped, and next season starts with complete kits.
The takeaway
Robotics kits do not get lost; they get redistributed. Make the kit the trackable unit, put the checklist and the packed-kit photo inside the lid, label the case and the expensive loose parts, and run one season-long checkout per team with a hard due date. The post-season reset - contents checked, gaps ordered, history recorded - is what turns four nominal kits back into four real ones before anyone needs them.