[MrForbes]

If you use some type of gadget to do it, then you need enough gadgets for all your scouts. Scouting seems to work best if you have six scouts working at one time, each scout is assigned the robot that starts in one of the 6 positions on the field. So that means you'd need six (or seven or so including spares) devices. We've used the Nintendo DS in the past, which worked well when we had a lot of students who owned the device. You could use smart phones, or some other device instead.

Things to consider when trying to decide on a platform include the cost of the platform, battery life, ease of use, cost and availability of any ancillary parts needed (wiimotes or special DS cards for example) and ease of programming.

Battery life with laptops is especially important, because it's not easy to get AC power in the stands where your scouts will be sitting. You can figure on needing the device to be running for roughly 6-8 hours a day, at least.

And ease of programming is important because of the limited time you have now to get something working.