[Ebolagirl]

I don’t know if “too much” is the correct term for the extraneous information gathered during scouting. Any information is “too much” if you don’t use it. While I agree that some information is usually very irrelevant (like knowing what drive system the robot has, etc). Sometimes it is nice to have that information to reference even though it is never actually used. It can be especially helpful when meeting with the drive team to discuss what has been observed all day. This information can help drivers visualize alliance partners without having actually seen them in action (because the drive team is stuck in the pit the whole time, so they never actually get to see robots competing).

We have two main components to our scouting system: pit scouting and match scouting.

Last year I sat though every single seeding round and watched every robot’s performance. I developed a system in the stands to watch the teams. I ended up knowing how well every team was able to perform in the heat of competition. This was useful that night when we had our driver/scout meeting to discuss potential alliance partners. We recorded the alliances and the final scores, as well as any match notes. This helped us find a trend in how well certain robots performed with certain partners.

In the pits we have a group that photographs every robot and takes technical data. This information is mostly used to keep track of “who” teams are as well as describe the other bots to the drive team like I mentioned earlier. Pit scouting is also important for introducing our team to other teams and putting ourselves in their mind. This is useful later when they are considering alliance partners, etc. It is also just good practice and a good display of sportsmanship.

In the end it all comes down to how you use the information you acquire and how well known you are around the competition. If no one knows who you are then you have little hope of being chosen first (reminiscent of days on the playground). Perhaps the most important thing to do while scouting is getting to know your competition, because they could end up being your partners.