"Best" Pit Scouting Questions
 

This thread is in honor of all those impressively irrelevant or hilariously phrased pit scouting questions we've heard at competition. Please post any you've heard or would love to ask. Have fun with this! :)

Examples:
"How many linear feet of zip ties are on your robot?"
"Is it boy or a girl?"
"If you were to compare your robot to an unladen swallow, would it be African or European?"


Props to my teammate Chase for coming up with the idea for this thread.

Re: "Best" Pit Scouting Questions
 

What is the weight of your code?

How many bits do you use?

How many wheels is your mechanum drive?

Re: "Best" Pit Scouting Questions
 

"On a scale of 1 to 10, how good do your bumpers look?"

Re: "Best" Pit Scouting Questions
 

not really a "best" question, but rather a little embarrassing.
Them: "Did you use Windriver or Netbeans for coding?"
Me: "We used Labview"
Them: "...oh"

Re: "Best" Pit Scouting Questions
 

This is a serious question... We have it on our pit scouting question sheet.

Re: "Best" Pit Scouting Questions
 

I hope you don't ask them. haha

Re: "Best" Pit Scouting Questions
 

I enjoy some of the "stupid" questions. For example, the only correct answer for that one is "11". Similarly, someone from a different team came and asked me how many seconds ago our drive team had left the pit. My answer was 347 and a half. He said ok, took about two steps and then stopped as he realized what had happened.

Similarly, I love the questions that you can answer factually but you know that when you do it's going to screw up their data processing. For example, there's lots of non-exhaustive multiple choice: "does your robot use traction wheels or mecanum?" For us the correct answer is "no". Similarly, I like questions where the answers might become skewed so much that the average won't mean anything. If you ask how far robots can shoot you'll get one robot like ours that will go like 100 feet, and if you average that with a bunch of other robots that shoot between 10 and 20 feet your average will end up being above the distance that all but one of the robots shoot.

Re: "Best" Pit Scouting Questions
 

Oh true. Sorry, I misread the OP's question.

Re: "Best" Pit Scouting Questions
 

"How many wheels are on your robot?"
"7"

Shooter wheels are wheels too

Re: "Best" Pit Scouting Questions
 

Then, 14?

Re: "Best" Pit Scouting Questions
 

"On a scale from 1 to 10, how much aloha does your team show?"

Re: "Best" Pit Scouting Questions
 

"What's the most points your robot can possibly score?"

I've always loved to see how my students answer that one.

Re: "Best" Pit Scouting Questions
 

Before bag day we were at a local practice field playing catch with another teams robot. We tossed the ball back and forth across the truss, catching it. and throwing it back. With our permission the team used one of these volleys in their revile video. This weekend at a competition one of their students doing pit scouting asked us several questions. His last question was: If we threw a ball over the truss do you think your robot could catch it. I just smiled and asked him if he had seen their revile video.

Re: "Best" Pit Scouting Questions
 

Same with the wheels, I think the intent was in the drivetrain. I think it was for last year, so ... 10?

Well, unless you have some other multiple of 4, I guess.

Now, this is a serious question, but it goes anywhere from "I don't know", "pretty fast", to making up a number since we haven't measured it.

Re: "Best" Pit Scouting Questions
 

"What is the gear ratio of your drivetrain?"
Our answer
"Umm something like a Million to One..."
*scouter writes down our answer*

Re: "Best" Pit Scouting Questions
 

One of our scouts asked a team: "On a scale of 1-5 how is your driving capability?"

Their answer was 10.

Stay classy 987.

Re: "Best" Pit Scouting Questions
 

The quality of a teams robot is often much more closely correlated to the quality of their bumpers than most people would guess. While asking a team this wouldn't do much good, this is actually not such a bad stat to have.

We often give our drivetrain speed in knots to pit scouts.

Re: "Best" Pit Scouting Questions
 

Scout: is there anything else you would like to add?
Me: yes, they have an extremely attractive driver
Scout: surprised then laughs
Me: no seriously, write that down

Re: "Best" Pit Scouting Questions
 

Come by out pits and you'll get it in a variety of colorful units-- fractions of a space shuttle's top speed (1/2000), the speed that a stalk of bamboo grows by (329,184), or if we're feeling nice, miles per hour (~10mph).

Re: "Best" Pit Scouting Questions
 

Questions i have seen this year are
the classic "What team number are you?" fools look at the sign
This year "Can your robot pick up?" Nooo... That big box with the wheels on top is just there to look good you dummy, get you stuff right or just ask to look at the robot to make your own observations before asking stupid questions.
I get the what team number one atleasy twice every regional and i avoid answering questions because i am usually in the back of the pit working on the robot.

Re: "Best" Pit Scouting Questions
 

I always try to make my teammates answer questions instead of me so if they ever ask me something that they don't know I just always say 7. Sometimes I pause and pretend to think or just instantly say it, but it's always 7. The best is when someone asks about the drive motors, dimensions, or height - it really throws them for a loop :)

Re: "Best" Pit Scouting Questions
 

That doesn't sound very GP. there were many instances where I've told scouts about the intake and they still ask if we can load.
Sometimes they forget, or it's just a habit they got into. You'll have to deal with stupid questions in the "real" world as well, not just at FRC, so you might as well get used to being polite about it.
I remember the most ridiculous one was "how good looking was your robot?"
I wanted to reply "devilishly handsome like me" but the drivers were there and us being friends, I'd know they'd probably say "don't insult the robot like that, it's not that ugly".

Re: "Best" Pit Scouting Questions
 

I got asked that one on Thursday during our regional (week 1). We hadn't even had our first practice match yet. I told them 1200 :yikes: . They looked confused and walked away. Honestly, how are you supposed to answer a question like, especially when matches haven't even started :confused: ? Which reminds me, I should really look over our pit scouting sheet and make sure we don't have anything like that on there.

Re: "Best" Pit Scouting Questions
 

This isn't really a scouting question, but at the 2010 championship, while serving as safety captain, another safety captain was interrogating teams (it was supposed to 'promote' safety) and I was asked if our team kept an AED (automated external defibrillator) with our first aid kit.

Re: "Best" Pit Scouting Questions
 

We've gotten asked every year how many wheels are on your drive train. They are also looking right at it when they ask this. I can't wait to see the questions we get asked this year due to the game.

If you are looking for serious ones definitely the robots speed(s) is a good one to ask. You can ask the consistency of the shots they make but most everyone will say something higher because yeah they think they are that good. It could help if you asked how many events the drive team has been in and it could give you an idea of their drive team could possibly do.

Re: "Best" Pit Scouting Questions
 

Not really FRC but In FTC I was asked in FTC does our robot hang? But someone said lift instead of hang. I did get a few laughs!:yikes:
Them: Does your it lift?
Me: Ya 125 lbs! (begins flexing) Ohh and the robot also lifts.

Re: "Best" Pit Scouting Questions
 

Personally I believe any question that isn't of strategic importance falls into this category. I have never once stopped while making a pick list, consulted the data, and said "No, we can't pick them. They only have six wheels in their drive train."

Re: "Best" Pit Scouting Questions
 

How about "answers" to pit scouting questions...Im sure we all have that member or two that we dread beign asked anything about the robot.

q:"Is your robot mainly offense or defense"?
A: Defense (our robot was a climber_Thats all it did climb to the top)

Re: "Best" Pit Scouting Questions
 

Can your robot hang on the Truss for 30pts?

Re: "Best" Pit Scouting Questions
 

Question: What language do you use? (In reference to programming)
Answer: English.

Re: "Best" Pit Scouting Questions
 

We tell our scouts to fill out everything on the sheet they can without asking questions, then ask for clarification and information about auto modes etc.

If I had a dollar for every time I heard "How many wheels do you have?"...

Question: Can your robot score in the low goal?
Everyone's Answer: Yes
Question: Can your robot get assist points?
Everyone's Answer: Yes

Re: "Best" Pit Scouting Questions
 

Lol i always answer politely, but I sigh and shake my head when they leave.

Re: "Best" Pit Scouting Questions
 

Oh okay I feel your pain haha

Re: "Best" Pit Scouting Questions
 

To be fair, your scouts asked the driver himself. I tried to inform them but I was too busy laughing at how natural the response was. :p

Re: "Best" Pit Scouting Questions
 

My answer: NOO

Re: "Best" Pit Scouting Questions
 

Do you have a drive train?

*looks sternly at me, i look at robot*

No, we don't.

*scribbles down answer*

Re: "Best" Pit Scouting Questions
 

A funny category that got onto our scouting list in regards to drive team was "craziness", as in how aggressively they drive (our main driver gets a 10 out of 10).

Some fun answers to common questions:
"We have 68 wheels on our drivetrain. That is to say, we have four 6" mecanums and four traction wheels."

"Our drivetrain goes 120MPH scaled to a 2013 Corvette."

"We can score a lot."

"The LEDs are to make it look good and go faster. Mostly to go faster."

Re: "Best" Pit Scouting Questions
 

what type of bear is best?

Re: "Best" Pit Scouting Questions
 

In a little more serous note, how do you answere how many moters your drivetrain has to someone who doesn't know what a swerve drive is? Because technically 8 but only 4 propel the robot.

Re: "Best" Pit Scouting Questions
 

Thankfully, this is only rarely true ;)

Re: "Best" Pit Scouting Questions
 

Black Bear.

Re: "Best" Pit Scouting Questions
 

I vote for pandas, although some people don't consider them bears. :D

Re: "Best" Pit Scouting Questions
 

Guiness on tap.

Oh wait, bear....

Re: "Best" Pit Scouting Questions
 

The best responses ive ever seen:

1902 (exploding bacon) gave us all of there info in bacon strips.

I tried to ask 987 about fundraising. "one of our mentors got really lucky and there has been no need for us to fund raise ever since"

challenging 1065 (moose) about a weight violation.

asking:
1538 for milk
1058 for PVC cement
1902 for grease
33 for honey
67 for a soldering iron

Re: "Best" Pit Scouting Questions
 

here are some pretty funny ones we were asked:

"Can your robot 360 no-scope?"
"Does your robot run off of the new Mage system? I heard it's magical"