Scouting using tablets

[RoboScout]

Last year our FIRST Team 1073 decided to develop a tablet based scouting application to replace the dreaded paper sheets and manually entered spreadsheets. We decided to go the Android route for two reasons: (1) Java is a more broadly applicable language for the students to learn, and (2) the Android tablets were more cost effective than the Apple devices.

We purchased three (budget constraints) Acer 7-inch tablets, along with protective cases and rubber bumpers. These devices have proven to be very reliable and with the cases, all survived several competitions intact. The 7-inch model is a good size, too. This year we hope to purchase additional devices so that we can scout all six teams in a given match. The Acer tablets can be bought for anywhere from $150-$250.

The tablet application itself (actually two apps: one for pit scouting and one for match scouting) is essentially an electronic version of the paper sheets. The apps also allow the scouter to take pictures and video, naming the captured media files according to the team number of the subject. The scouting data itself is saved within the device as a text file, again named according to the team subject. We wrote the app(s) in a general way so that each year, we can develop a new 'sheet' with minimal new development. Ask me next month how we did on that front;-)

There is a central laptop running a data processing application that takes the data from the tablets, parses the information and stores it into a database. From there, we have a series of report generators that apply weights to the collected data attributes, and generate a draft pick-list of prospective alliance partners. The laptop application is written in python and uses SQLite as the database. Recent changes to the data processing application allows us to keep the pick-list up to date in real time, which should be helpful at comp.

Transferring the scouting data off the tablets to the central laptop was a bit of a hassle early on. We didn't have much luck using USB cables to allow the laptop to pull the files directly off the tablets. It was hit or miss on whether it would work properly. We also wanted to use bluetooth, and purchased a software package that ran on both the PC and the tablets, but that turned out not to be very reliable. In the end, we wrote our own bluetooth sync service on the tablets and the PC that transfers the files from the tablets to the PC (think HTTP over bluetooth sockets), triggered by a button on the tablet application. Like other posters indicated, we didn't want to rely on 3G access or the availability of WIFI at comp for our scouting app to work. While bluetooth can be a bit finicky, it has worked pretty well for us, in the configuration where each tablet sync's its data files to the central computer.

This year, we plan to focus our new development on the report generation and information sharing aspects of the overall scouting application. The central laptop application supports a web server that allows anyone with a browser to view the data. We found that particularly useful at our strategy meetings that we hold at night while at comp. Previously, we all needed to huddle around a single machine to look at the data, but now everyone can peruse all the data on their own. But, we need a more refined user interface, and that's where we will focus some energy.

While the application isn't completely ready for prime time, we would like to share what we are doing with other interested teams. Feel free to contact me directly via PM for more info (this post is far toooo long)...

Ken St. (aka RoboScout)
FIRST Team 1073