FRCscout.com A Different Approach to the Scouting Platform
 

Teams 4030 Null Pointer Exception and 1983 Skunk Works are proud to present our scouting platform, http://FRCscout.com/. Designed to be user-friendly and easy to implement, our platform includes these following main features:

• Internet Connection: The platform is designed to work around spotty internet connection and the lack of Wi-Fi at competitions. Connect to the internet once to load the entire scouting process, leave the connection and scout an unlimited number of matches, then connect to the internet again to push your local data to the database.
• Website Advantage: It’s usable to anyone with a tablet, smartphone, or laptop. If your device can access the internet, it can scout. The screen will resize and orient to remain as ergonomic as possible. You will never have to update it, and your device already has an internet browser installed. Also, with the exception of uploading pictures from the pit, the website is not very data-intensive (it is basically just sending and receiving short text files).
• Easy Analysis: The platform has a built in connector to Tableau (data visualization software included in your KoP, click here for tutorials) for custom and quick analysis. The platform also shows basic analytics about teams.
• Built in Pit-Scouting, Commenting, and Pictures: You don’t have to connect it to additional apps to get a full picture of the robot, literally and figuratively.
• Intuitive, Easy to Use Interface: Also comes with a built in Match scouting tutorial.
• Team Management: Using an encrypted login system, the platform makes organizing and keeping track of scouts easy for a lead. Because every match has a scout associated to it, you can find which of your scouts are making mistakes and train them to fix it.
• Publicly Accessible Database: Not only will you have your own data, you can access data taken by all other teams using the platform. The more teams using the FRC Scout, the more balanced and accurate the overall data becomes. Data from all teams is accessible and can be easily filtered down to just data collected by your team if you want that. This feature also lets smaller teams work together to split the work and share the data.

The more teams using the platform, the better! Please try FRCScout.com at the link below and tell us what you think.
http://frcscout.com/login/

Note: This is a different and independent platform from the tablet app FRCscout, designed by team 1986.

Re: FRCscout.com A Different Approach to the Scouting Platform
 

This is a really easy site to use. Great UI! Does it sync publicly at competitions? Like if a team uploaded information, I could see it?

Thank you! The database is publicly available and updated in realtime as soon as a team pushes data. So as long as you have internet access, you can access all of the latest information.

I am the lead web developer for FRC Scout -- if you have any questions about things specific to the website and its functionality, you can ask me.

Re: FRCscout.com A Different Approach to the Scouting Platform
 

Is there any way to figure out who has the manager role for your team? I thought I made the first account for my team, and everyone I've asked at our meeting so far says they haven't made an account.

Re: FRCscout.com A Different Approach to the Scouting Platform
 

If you were the first to make an account, you should be manager. In your case, Robert Marshall beat you to the punch. I went back in and made you a manager. Hope you like the app!

Re: FRCscout.com A Different Approach to the Scouting Platform
 

...darn alumni. This looks like a great system for our team, thanks!

Re: FRCscout.com A Different Approach to the Scouting Platform
 

Glad to help! PM me if you have any team-specific questions.

Re: FRCscout.com A Different Approach to the Scouting Platform
 

Prisoner's dilemma? :cool:

Hardly. Think of it as collective bargaining.

Re: FRCscout.com A Different Approach to the Scouting Platform
 

Love that it can be shared among teams. Very helpful for us smaller teams.

I do see the prisoners dilemma as noted above, but I don't think this will be an issue. You will have to CREATE a prisoners dilemma to have a prisoners dilemma. With multiple teams watching the same match, they would have to agree not to share that information with the other teams. If one team breaks that agreement, they will share with others and get more info back.

Re: FRCscout.com A Different Approach to the Scouting Platform
 

You might want to include a walk through on how to use this app and scout a match.
Either step by step or youtube.

Lot of rookie teams could benefit from this and walking through the process of explaining it to someone new, you will find lots of improvements that can be made.

Video tutorial did you say?

FRC Scout Tutorial: http://youtu.be/DgRGNKkIbKM

A few things have changed since when we recorded this but the vast majority is still the same.

Re: FRCscout.com A Different Approach to the Scouting Platform
 

Hotdog!

Re: FRCscout.com A Different Approach to the Scouting Platform
 

Really proud of you Quinn. Everybody did amazing work on this. I've heard nothing but great reviews about the new system. I'm excited to see how it works out this week.

Data quality is huge and this is a great step forward in that regard. The fact that it's easing the strain on teams Is a huge plus.

Thanks for all you do, you're amazing!

Re: FRCscout.com A Different Approach to the Scouting Platform
 

"[*]Publicly Accessible Database: Not only will you have your own data, you can access data taken by all other teams using the platform. The more teams using the FRC Scout, the more balanced and accurate the overall data becomes. Data from all teams is accessible and can be easily filtered down to just data collected by your team if you want that. This feature also lets smaller teams work together to split the work and share the data."

I really like the fact that the database is publicly accessible and that it is possible to write your own SQL queries to extract data from it. Being able to query the data that you've entered in anyway that occurs to you is fantastic. Thanks for this feature!