Quote:
Originally Posted by LeadU2Fun
I know you will probably tell me this is the exception but when you balance on a coop bridge with a high seed alliance and they want to pick you but confuse you with a similar team number that tipped when trying to balance, there's a problem. You are saying to rely on their scouting. I say we didn't distinguish ourselves enough. There were good suggestions in here for doing that. Making our "uniforms" and robot's aesthetics recognizable, showing pictures (should have printed the picture of us balancing and given it to them), something to bring attention to robot when it accomplishes a function, pit board with key important aspects, etc. would all help do this.
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A robot or team that stands out can help ("those are the guys with the bunny ears, right?") but don't rely entirely on it. There aren't any colors that *someone* isn't using.... One thing we do is take pictures(1) of *every* robot, and we project those at our Friday pick list discussion so everyone knows what robot we're discussing. So one thing you can do is when someone from another team comes by to take a picture, make sure you clear out some space. That would also be a good time to point out "take a look at our bridge wedge, and how we lock it down", and encourage a picture of the specific.
Ask if the photographer is part of the team's scouting group, or if they're just an interested spectator. If the former, tell them what to look for next time you're on the field (and tell them when you'll be there). As other people have said on this thread, we'd be more likely to look at a feature on your robot if you can relate to us why our alliance would need that.
When I'm teaching them how to debug code I tell my FLL kids to look at what the program *does*, not what they *want* it to do. Big difference, and seems obvious when you think about it. Robot performance is exactly the same thing..tell teams what you've done (or what you've fixed to make something work that hadn't been) and tell them what to look for. Good scouting is hard; you can help be noticed if you help the process.
And one other thing: please make sure you listen when we're trying to explain to you why we think you might want to pick us.
(1) when you get to the point that you're taking pictures you get a lot better view of the robot if you take a diagonal shot, not straight on from either the front or the side. And always make sure the bumpers are on.