Scouting Software

[MohammadAdib]

Hello, I had an idea to aid in scouting this year by giving each scout a laptop which is capable of sending information to a server on the network. This is not a technical question, but one regarding the actual scouting. What are the things that the scouts will be looking out for this year? Examples would be like points scored, how many balls went into which hoop, drivetrain....etc.

[Jon Stratis]

Just a word of warning... you may not have internet access at the competition venue (and you aren't allowed to set up your own personal wifi networks... it interferes with the field)! Make sure you take that into account, so each computer can (for example) cache the data that's entered, and the upload it all at once in the evening when you get back home or to your hotel.

[MohammadAdib]

Just a word of warning... you may not have internet access at the competition venue (and you aren't allowed to set up your own personal wifi networks... it interferes with the field)! Make sure you take that into account, so each computer can (for example) cache the data that's entered, and the upload it all at once in the evening when you get back home or to your hotel.

Thank you for informing me! Yes, i do plan on a cache system, i guess this almost rules out a client server solution, but i'll make it work i guess :). Thanks again.

[Samwaldo]

I know that last year my team, used personal wifi systems (I think they were called my-fi's)

We had one set up in the pits and another in the stands where scouts were watching each match and individual robots. I think we also had a iPad or 2, to scout out pits. This system was amazing because the drivers were able to quickly go on a computer in the pit and look up info about partners and opponents.

This online system is especially useful at championships!!! The field and pits are so far apart, it's hard to get data back to the pits with a paper system.

[JewishDan18]

I know that last year my team, used personal wifi systems (I think they were called my-fi's)

We had one set up in the pits and another in the stands where scouts were watching each match and individual robots. I think we also had a iPad or 2, to scout out pits. This system was amazing because the drivers were able to quickly go on a computer in the pit and look up info about partners and opponents.

This online system is especially useful at championships!!! The field and pits are so far apart, it's hard to get data back to the pits with a paper system.

I'm pretty sure this system was illegal...

Has anyone looked into setting up a bluetooth system for moving data? I'm pretty sure they are not illegal (will have to check the rules). Phones and laptops pretty much all have it, and it has a good enough range for match scouting

[Jon Stratis]

From this year's rulebook:
4.3.1 Robot Wireless Control

Robots may be operated via wireless control only on the competition fields and the practice field with the FIRST supplied radio; and

Teams are not allowed to set up their own 802.11a/b/g/n (2.4GHz or 5GHz) wireless communication (access points or ad-hoc networks) in the venue
Note that a wireless hot spot created by a cellular device would be considered an access point, and thus not allowed


From last year's rulebook:
4.4.1 Robot Wireless Control
 Robots may be operated via wireless control only on the competition fields and the practice field with the FIRST supplied radio; and
 Teams are not allowed to set up their own 802.11a/b/g/n (2.4GHz or 5GHz) wireless communication (access points or ad-hoc networks) in the venue

Please, please please! do not set up your own wireless networks that the venue. There is nothing worse than to see your robot get to the other side of the field and stop working because the wireless drops out!

[Becca334]

To answer your original question, I think scouts will be looking at scoring into hoops(low, middle, or high), device to lower bridge, able to go over bump, any type of defense they might have, and of course if they are able to balance.

[EricLeifermann]

You will want to know how many penalties they commit because each one gives 3 or 9 points to the other alliance. You don't want to lose in the elims because your alliance gave the other alliance free points

[TEAM1100soft506]

Just a word of warning... you may not have internet access at the competition venue (and you aren't allowed to set up your own personal wifi networks... it interferes with the field)! Make sure you take that into account, so each computer can (for example) cache the data that's entered, and the upload it all at once in the evening when you get back home or to your hotel.

to extend on that, because the robots work on wifi, it is not likely that you will be able to use wifi at all. now to tell you how to by pass this is what i will tell you. Bring a ethernet switch and a laptop to your competition. set the laptop up to be the server that the scouts dump the data from their laptops into. keep in mind you will need alot of ethernet cables. good luck.

[SteveGPage]

Our scouting approach uses 3G or 4G access through smart phones or tablets, rather than wi-fi. We found that enough students, mentors or parents have devices which can access the Internet directly. We create 2 Google docs forms - one for pit scouting and one for match scouting, for our scouts to use to record pit and match data. The results are stored in Google spreadsheets for us to use to modify game strategy or our elimination round pick list. We analyze the data using an advanced analytics tool that my company has developed, and is freely available to the public, called MicroStrategy Personal Cloud (http://www.microstrategy.com/cloud/personal/). We have found this allows us to do predictive analysis, trends, averages, etc. if you have any questions how to use this tool, or how to set up Google forms, feel free to PM me directly.

Steve

[Patrickwhite]

Have some space set aside for scouts to note down anything important - if a robot plays excellent defence but doesn't score, the numbers alone will tell you that the robot isn't a good partner. If a robot spends its matches feeding balls to your side of the court, you need to know that. It may seem obvious, but it's easy to forget or overlook.

[junefish]

One of the programmers on our team has been coding a scouting software for about a week. It considers scoring ability, balancing ability, and drive train ability, among others. He's now setting up a network so that all scouting computers will send their data to a server. Since Wifi isn't allowed, we were going to use Bluetooth--has anyone else seen a rule against that?

If you want the HTML code for the scouting software, PM me and I'll share it with you. It is visually simple, but very effective.

[GalDylan]

As much as using laptops for scouting is helpful and saves times, a human eye is always better to tell you information on robots.
I reccomend, considering you've got the manpower, to post at least one or two scouts without laptops whose job it is to watch the games and not any specific bot.
If a bot is truly worth mentioning, you can count on it being etched in thier brains.
Also, its always helpful to keep score of your own matches since the qualification list posted in the pits is not always correct.
Good Luck

[junefish]

Yes, personal WiFi networks are illegal. However, Internet access really isn't necessary, intranet will do just fine. A single robot battery can power an Ethernet switch for an entire day of competition. Bring a lot of cables for your scouts :D .

If you want to have the server connected to the Internet you could do this without creating any illegal networks by using a 3G connection instead. This way you could upload from the stands and download in the pits using the same sort of 3G setup on another system, so drivers/coaches can get your info right away.

I have also seen teams using homebrew Nintendo DS software to scout, and share the data using the DS's wireless connectivity. I think this may be a bit of a gray area, since I'm not entirely sure if the DS's ad hoc system uses WiFi or a different standard.

Although, I still do kind of like the simplicity of a paper scouting system...
It's true that a paper scouting system is simpler, but it's difficult to compile and analyze after 2.5 days of steady qualification matches. We've used computers for several years now, and last year I often thought a particular robot was good--because one match really stood out--until scouting analysis showed that to be a fluke. The scouting needs to be done by humans, but computers are definitely helpful at the analysis stage.