Actually the best pit scouting questions

[jblay]

Originally Posted by MrForbes

Sending students around to talk with students from each of the other teams is a good thing. The data they collect should be taken with a grain of salt.

I also think that is a big benefit of pit scouting. Getting a large portion of our members that will spend most of the event scouting instead of in our pit to talk to other teams and learn about their bots is a huge bonus.

[MikeZ]

Originally Posted by Sparky3D

OK, I just have to ask a question. I see "Number of Wheels" on the vast majority of scouting sheets, and it gets asked constantly in the pits, but does it really matter? I can understand what type drivetrain you have, or what speed you are geared for making a difference in a scouting discussion; but do teams actually base their rankings on how many wheels our robot has?

We don’t ask for "number of wheels", but at the request of one of our Mentors we will start to ask "How many batteries do you have?"

As many know, if your team is fortunate to go deep into Eliminations, with several best 2 of 3 matches, knowing if the Alliance can keep up with fresh batteries is relatively important.

[TheMadCADer]

Hand them a picture of the field they can draw on. Ask them to draw their autonomous routine(s). Include any precisely known dimensions if they have them (ex: we line up x feet from this wall).

[Pault]

Objective ones. Asking questions like "how good are you at playing defense?" and "what is your shooting accuracy?" tells you just about nothing.

[philso]

Originally Posted by jblay

talk to other teams and learn about their bots is a huge bonus.

You also learn about their attitudes and work ethic.

Last year, we were in St. Louis so my son's team could compete in the FLL World Festival. In the evening, after the FLL activities were over for the day, we would visit the FRC pits, often after the matches were finished for the day. Most of the pits were empty with only a lonely robot. We noticed afterward that the teams that were still working those evenings were well represented in the Division finals and on Einstein. Teams like 1114, 610 and our friends at 1477 (thanks again for the ride) were repairing and improving their robot every time we visited. The 118 team members didn't have much repair work to do but were not leaving anything to chance, constantly checking for things like tire wear, loose screws and loose electrical connections.

You also get to see how the team members work with each other. If they are arguing amongst themselves in the pits, how likely are you to be able to negotiate an alliance strategy with them?

[Mr. Lim]

It sounds odd, but I always ask questions that I already know the answer to, or think I do.

How accurate is your shooter?... For example.

Most every team will tell you 90% or higher. Most will actually believe it too. Very few are actually telling the truth when they say that.

It's always refreshing when you hear a team tell you a percentage that's spot on with what your scouting says, even though it sounds very low compared to everyone else.

The irony is, a team like that will probably have one of the best shooting percentages at the competition!

I always like to ask "what's your favourite part of the robot"

The answer I usually get is vaguely about how awesome a shooter or intake or catcher is. There's often a lot of hand waving and adjectives.

But I love hearing from students about a seemingly innocuous, but "critical detail," like a chain tensioner that required a weird setup on the mill, or the geometry iterations behind a catapult hard stop that stopped it from self destructing when dry fired. Or maybe it was a series of equations in programming to make the driver controls smoother to control. An oddly shaped bracket that magically cleared enough room for the shooter to fire without having to deploy the intake. Maybe it's just a series of clearance /access holes that allow the pit crew to replace an entire gearbox without disassembling the whole side of the drivetrain.

I guess my questioning usually revolves around how well a team understands their own robot, its limitations, and whether they have realistic expectations of it.

I don't really much care if the robot is "good" or "bad". Our match scouting data can figure that out. But a "bad" robot in the hands of a "good" team can help you win a lot of banners. That's what you're really looking for when pit scouting.

[minidave910]

I don't really much care if the robot is "good" or "bad". Our match scouting data can figure that out. But a "bad" robot in the hands of a "good" team can help you win a lot of banners. That's what you're really looking for when pit scouting.

I think that's a fantastic way to look at it. I've never thought of it that way before, but I really like that.

Personally, one valuable kind of pit scouting I think most teams forget about is pit scouting once matches have already begun. Since we have a separate sheet per team at an event, it makes it really easy to spot sudden deviations from a team's usual performance. Pit scouting that team can be a great way to figure out what's going on.

For example, if a team's data shows that they are very consistently scoring 4 high goals during teleoperated, and suddenly their robot barely moves during a match, it's important to know why. Was it a communications issue? Are there some electrical gremlins they need to work out? Send a pit scout to ask. Record the answer. Then send them again later to see if they've solved the problem (if not, ask what they need and offer a hand). I'd be much more comfortable picking a team who didn't move one match because their radio came unplugged than a team that fried a cRIO, but these can look the same from the stands.

[Peter Matteson]

Originally Posted by TheMadCADer

Hand them a picture of the field they can draw on. Ask them to draw their autonomous routine(s). Include any precisely known dimensions if they have them (ex: we line up x feet from this wall).

Your scouts should already know this.
And it's not a definite thing that the people in the pit will know the correct answer to this question depending on the team's division of labor.

Originally Posted by Mr. Lim

I always like to ask "what's your favourite part of the robot"

Are practicing to be a judge?
That's the question they always ask.

[Chadfrom308]

We really don't ask too many questions, we judge ourselves. Like drivetrain, for example. We can tell what kind of wheels they have, how many are powered (most of the time) just by looking. We still do ask questions on how things work.


Then we judge for ourselves: How well could they assist, how well are their bumpers made, are they a 1st or 2nd pick, and so on.

We also ask: What grade is your driveteam on? How much experience do they have?

This matters especially this year where you need practice catching the ball and passing. I like to see that the drivers have been through 2012 when we had to balance.

[IronicDeadBird]

I would like to take everyone who is reading this and remind them one thing.
A really nice icebreaker when talking to other teams is something like...
"Do you guys have a minute?"
I remember so many times I forgot to scout a team cause they just caught me at a bad time.