Paper Scouting Sheets/ideas

[Leafonthewind]

Hi, I am a member of rookie team 4911. We have begun to plan our scouting strategy. Here is what we have come up with so far. We can fit six of these on one side of a piece of paper so that we only need one paper per team at each competition. We were wondering if anyone had any comments/ideas that could improve it. We have done FTC, but this game is more complicated than we are used to.

[cgranata]

Here is Team 1396's scouting sheet from last year's game, Ultimate Ascent. Maybe you can get a few ideas from the layout and fields.

[cmrnpizzo14]

I am a huge fan of a single sheet per team, we did a system like that last year and loved it. The only real change that I would recommend for the metrics is remove any qualitative data capturing. There will be a lot of grey area in anything like that, especially on a scale out of 3. Try to keep everything in scouting quantitative except for a comments section in each match or something similar. Human input is valuable in small doses.

Welcome to FRC, I look forward to watching you in competition! Just being aware that scouting is valuable puts you far ahead of many teams.

[jtaffy]

Here is Team 1396's scouting sheet from last year's game, Ultimate Ascent. Maybe you can get a few ideas from the layout and fields.

Did you use only one of these sheets per team and update it through the day of qualifying rounds, or one of these sheets per match that the team was in?

[ErikEdhlund]

If you are interested email me at dxgamer@gmail.com I can provide a lot of feedback and provide you with our old scouting sheets from the past 5 years of games. I am always willing to answer questions and share ideas. I also don't bite.

[Brennen3828]

Did you use only one of these sheets per team and update it through the day of qualifying rounds, or one of these sheets per match that the team was in?

What would be wise is to record each team for each match per sheet. In that way, you could track of all of one team's improvement throughout the whole regional. If you just have 1 sheet for each team only and only have a data for one match, then you will not see that the team have improved or went downhill.

When you scout, you should have at least 6 people and you assign each person a robot during a match. That person will record all the data for that particular robot for that match.

If you need more understanding, please reply to this post or private message me.

Brennen
Team 3160

[cgmv123]

Instead of printing off 6 * the number of qualification matches at your event sheets and wasting paper, print off about 20 or 30 and get them laminated. That way your scouters can use Vis-a-Vis markers to mark the sheets, and you can record the data, erase it and reuse the sheet.

[chmorroni]

Last year, we used this sheet (https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_PTkrt7f7AYVzJsMHU5cnpZNUE/edit?usp=sharing) for recording data on each team. We had 6 people in the stands, each filling out a sheet for a separate team. That data was then entered into a Google Form, where other sheets in the responses spreadsheet would compile a number of stats per each team. The spreadsheet has since been change a bit, but a work-in-progress base spreadsheet is here (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AvPTkrt7f7AYdEE2ZHJJc3RQbjFRbDBDVEpiNEVGM EE&usp=sharing) if you would like to see it.

[lf3307]

I started with all the great ideas others have posted and distilled it in the attached. At this point, it is clearly a paper-based system, and it needs thought on standardized answers, but I just thought I'd float it now...

[Brennen3828]

I made a Scouting Sheet as well. Please feedback about it.

[lf3307]

I made a Scouting Sheet as well. Please feedback about it.

Brennen3828 - I'm not seeing a link to your sheet in your post.

[SoftwareBug2.0]

Brennen3828 - I'm not seeing a link to your sheet in your post.

I'm not seeing it either, but that won't stop me from supplying a link to some feedback: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-Vy4VRRO30

[SoftwareBug2.0]

Here is what we have come up with so far. We can fit six of these on one side of a piece of paper so that we only need one paper per team at each competition. We were wondering if anyone had any comments/ideas that could improve it.

What are F/D/G?

[Leafonthewind]

What are F/D/G?

Those are qualitative scores that stand for Fail/Decent/Great. We decided that this would be better than having a scale of 1-5 so that it would be more obvious which one our scouters should circle, and therefore make our data more accurate.

[Matt17]

Hi, I am a member of rookie team 4911. We have begun to plan our scouting strategy. Here is what we have come up with so far. We can fit six of these on one side of a piece of paper so that we only need one paper per team at each competition. We were wondering if anyone had any comments/ideas that could improve it. We have done FTC, but this game is more complicated than we are used to.

Have you thought of pit scouting sheets or collecting info on each team's robot such as the robot's capabilities or features (pick up device, drive train type, shooter type)?

[Leafonthewind]

Have you thought of pit scouting sheets or collecting info on each team's robot such as the robot's capabilities or features (pick up device, drive train type, shooter type)?

Yes, we have a separate sheet for pit/pre scouting.

[Gambitron]

Hey team 4911,

I'm the president of Ingraham's robotics club(team 4030), and I would like to tell you about paperless scouting. Most people aren't normally aware of this, but there are great resources for paperless scouting. Aviation has their own scouting app, which allows you to look at data they collected, and it tends to be very accurate as they have a large scouting team.

Also, Ingraham's team has a data collection app (http://dev.ingrahamrobotics.org/), that allows you to look at all sorts of stats on different teams by event location, and look at info from past events.

The disadvantage to using apps is that in order to access the data base, you need a WiFi connection, which can be a problem. Most events have them if they aren't in high-schools, however if the event you are going to is in a high-school, you can email the school, and request their WiFi password.

For FRC, scouting is a very important aspect that a lot of teams overlook, so i'm glad you guys are interested.

If you want to learn about the app more, Ingraham's FRC team will be attending the event your team is hosting on 2/7/14, so I look forward to seeing you there

-Gambitron

[Wzup4021]

Have you thought of pit scouting sheets or collecting info on each team's robot such as the robot's capabilities or features (pick up device, drive train type, shooter type)?

What is the reason behind recording drive train, shooters etc? The way I see it, I don't care what they use, I just care about how well they use it. What are your reasons behind recording those things?

[Igreenman]

What is the reason behind recording drive train, shooters etc? The way I see it, I don't care what they use, I just care about how well they use it. What are your reasons behind recording those things?

Since i have joined my team i hve been trying to figure out the reason ing for these questions and they still dont have a point. thank you for beeing one of the few that sees it. lol :]

[EricH]

Since i have joined my team i hve been trying to figure out the reason ing for these questions and they still dont have a point. thank you for beeing one of the few that sees it. lol :]

I think there's quite a few more that see it... My personal take is that pit scouting should be pictures and asking how stuff works. (And making friends with as many teams as possible.) Any estimated quantities of scoring are decent... but I never trust 'em, too easy to bluff/overestimate/apples-to-oranges comparison--and the data from the stands should be able to call any bluff pretty easily.

On the other hand, if a team were to tell me that they played shutdown D, no penalties, and could acquire a ball in 2 seconds and release to a partner in 2 after moving, and then back it up on the field under counter-defense, I'd really be looking at 'em as a good solid alliance member.

[Josh Fritsch]

What is the reason behind recording drive train, shooters etc? The way I see it, I don't care what they use, I just care about how well they use it. What are your reasons behind recording those things?

Since i have joined my team i hve been trying to figure out the reason ing for these questions and they still dont have a point. thank you for beeing one of the few that sees it. lol

If used properly in conjunction with match related scouting data, these types of metrics can be used very effectively for selection and strategy development. Many times the elimination rounds play out much differently than qualifying rounds and teams forming alliances are looking for a specific qualities - especially with regard to a second alliance pick.

Does your strategy require a robot that can pick off from the floor or only from the human player?

Does your alliance strategy require a pure defense bot? Maybe a stronger drive train with traction wheels will give you the pushing advantage you need. Or do you you want a highly mobile alliance and only want swerve or mecanum drive trains?

How about pictures of robots that are taken?

Typically it is difficult for teams to integrate this type of qualitative data in with the quantitative data gathered through watching matches. A team with a strong scouting foundation with a database that makes it easy for them to manipulate data as they see fit will be able to take advantage of this additional information.

[IVAN]

paper scouting though a bit of a pain sometimes but is great for those who aren't app makers or doesn't have the tech to operate them efficiently

this is what 2429 will be rolling with this year

http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=126104