Scouting in Michigan
 

Hey all you Michiganders!!

I know we are all excited for the 2010 Breakaway game, but I am wondering, how are we all looking at scouting?

I know Da' Bears will be using a database scouting system to scout this year and will be lending a hand to any team who needs it. I will help you guys out if you need it but I am wondering what your scouting methods will be looking like?

Re: Scouting in Michigan
 

862's going with the fail-safe pen(cil) and paper system in combination with the buddy system. for the most part vets get paired up with 1 or 2 rookies and teach them how to scout using pre-made forums

Re: Scouting in Michigan
 

Just an idea. Maybe FiM could test out taking a picture of every robot at inspection time and loading it up to their site. The only problem i see is they may not have their bumpers on for easy identification. Perhaps a seperate location and ask teams to stop by sometime during the event.

Re: Scouting in Michigan
 

We try to do something like this as a team. It really helps when you are reviewing/ranking robots later on because you do have a pic of the robot to go off of. I will be trying my best the first day at the competitions to get all the pics of the teams there and would be more then willing to share them with any other teams. So if anyone is at Traverse City next weekend or at Wayne State just try to find Kyle at 818 and I would be more then willing to try to help you out.

Re: Scouting in Michigan
 

7 or 8 team members with pen on premade sheets, which are then handed off to a team member to compile into an excel spread sheet. Making our list friday night, and checking up on some diamonds in the rough on saturday.

Re: Scouting in Michigan
 

Well if any of you saw my thread about our mediawiki scouting system, you know we are using that. We will have it on a USB drive, and will have a laptop (or desktop) out in our pit with the wiki on display for anyone to use.

We also use a pen and paper system system to get the initial data, and also have every student on my team that isn't a driver (about 30) scout 4 matches of every team they are assigned to. That way we get information about the robot and how they preform on the field.

As of right now we don't store the match data digitally, but if I have spare time this week I will develop a match archive system for the wiki.

If you guys see us in the pits at an event and you want a copy, we SHOULD have a copy available for other teams to put on a USB drive for their own use.
That's not finalized though.

In the wiki we also will have pictures of every robot at the event unless there we cannot get a picture for some reason.

Re: Scouting in Michigan
 

Do you have teams x,y,z.... assigned to a specific team member? Our team spreads the teams among people because some people look for different attributes on a team than others.

Even though I'm not in Michigan, our team is using networked laptops for the first time this year with paper and pencils as a back up.

Re: Scouting in Michigan
 

How it works is that each member has a team x (or normally it's 1-2 teams unless it's nationals). Their job is to know everything about team x that there is to know. They basically become an expert on them. They watch their matches, and track their progress.

This is really useful because when we need to "check up on some diamonds in the rough" we can come to the person and get everything extra we need to know about their robot.

We also have "general scouters" who are a group of about 3 of us who looks over all teams and interprets all data. We're sort of the opinion eliminators.


We do it this way so that everyone scouts and no one person is stuck watching every match.

Re: Scouting in Michigan
 

Very nice strategy especially with how deep you go into a team's ability with having "experts" on teams. And with 25+ members on your team that isn't too hard to accomplish.

Good luck!

Re: Scouting in Michigan
 

Haha yeah it's definitely easier with the load of people we have. That's also why we are letting other teams use out scouting data; it's so that we don't have an unfair advantage over smaller teams.

And thanks! :)

Re: Scouting in Michigan
 

We're trying to figure out the wiimote scouting system but Thats probably going to be an offseason project so its back to good ol' pen and paper for CHAOS.

Re: Scouting in Michigan
 

Well I offer this every year, and always am willing to help teams, I will even come meet with teams before competitions and talk to help get some ideas set for them. I know I have a program I will be using for my team and have been making duplicate ones for other teams who are close with us. But if you are going to be in a competition with 247, do not be afraid to ask for Fennig (thats me). Our team will help anyone with scouting, I try and stress that a lot because it can make or break you.

But if anyone needs help or wants to talk, email me.