[ChrisH]

Of course, what you DO with the data collected is more important than the data itself. Team 330 generates spreadsheets that process the data collected. Weighting factors are used to assess the relative strengths of the robots.

Here's a simplified example of how that works. Assume that we figure all of the action is going to be tubes. Our initial cut at a spreadsheet will have a high weighting factor, say 70%, assigned to how many tubes a robot put up in a match. If at the event we find minibots to be more important, we simply change the weighting factors of the minibot and the tubes and the spreadsheet produces a different result, showing the high performing minibots.

These things can be set up and verified before the event so that while you are there you can focus on collecting the data.

Pure performace is not the only data to worry about either. While it is helpful in determining what a team is capable of, it does nothing to reveal unexploited weaknesses in a robot's design, like last year being able to be shoved into a goal and immobilized. This type of information takes a different type of scouting than just counting up scores.

How teams work together on an alliance is also important. I know of one team that might have lost out on a World Championshiop because they gave the person sent to talk to them about pairing up in eliminations the cold shoulder. That honor went to another team on our short list that was a little more friendly. I've always wondered what would have happened if things had gone differently....