HTMLish based scouting

[jlmcmchl]

Originally Posted by bbradf44

So im not even sure if this is possible, but ill give it a shot and see what people think. This year we are running scouting in the stands through either MS Excel or Access so that it can be run through Tableau. Our current setup requires all 6 scouts to have forms to fill out while the 7th inputs them into the database, then an 8th person runs a USB flash drive back and forth to the pits whenever we want to update where we have the Tableau program running. I got the idea while in my web design class today, would it be possible to have an HTML form running on cell phones or other 3g/4g enabled device that when the submit button is pressed, it sends the data to the database that will be either on our team website or in the cloud, which i can then open on my laptop in our pit(usb tethered to my phone)? The html file itself wont be online(but maybe i could put that on our website too) but rather stored on each of the phones. Ideas/criticisms welcome

One issue here is I've never been to an event with a solid data connection. Your system is entirely dependent on that, and will cause headaches and frustration at game time.

Simpler, less dependent solutions I've seen were applications that store the data locally and then push the data to a local server by the push of a button. You're on a good path with using HTML and <form> tags, though. This would also eliminate the 8th person; the 7th person's job is handled by computers, making more people available for other important jobs at competition. Additionally, you can setup Tableau on the local server, and print out data for your upcoming matches to run down to the pits, eliminating extra time needed to process the data in the pits, while still making the data available for developing strategy.

[xSAWxBLADEx]

My old team tried everything, Sql servers, excel spreadsheets, etc. and at the end of the year we always resorted back to paper and pens. Yes, we had the OPR data and raw match data ran through a excel database much like Ed's, but real match scouting was paper and pens. Sorry tree huggers, I have to admit I love killing the trees if it meant getting clean scouting forms.

[jlmcmchl]

Originally Posted by xSAWxBLADEx

My old team tried everything, Sql servers, excel spreadsheets, etc. and at the end of the year we always resorted back to paper and pens. Yes, we had the OPR data and raw match data ran through a excel database much like Ed's, but real match scouting was paper and pens. Sorry tree huggers, I have to admit I love killing the trees if it meant getting clean scouting forms.

Wait... what does this have to do with the thread?

[xSAWxBLADEx]

Originally Posted by jlmcmchl

Wait... what does this have to do with the thread?

I am just saying we tried using computer to aid with scouting, and it didn't work for us. I am just letting other teams know that if html scouting doesn't work, paper is a wonderful alternative.

[Merfoo]

Our team developed a html/js scouting application that wrote .csv files for each match and could also collect every match.csv file to compile a "master" file which has data about each robot based on the match data. Worked pretty well at our last district.
https://github.com/FRC-Team-955/AerialAssistScouting

[wesleyac]

Originally Posted by jlmcmchl

You're on a good path with using HTML and <form> tags, though. This would also eliminate the 8th person; the 7th person's job is handled by computers, making more people available for other important jobs at competition.

You can also eliminate the person who runs down to the pits by storing it on a server. Although that depends on data as well. As for data issues,storing to disk can help. That way, if it's a temporary issue, you can upload it later, or if it's a major issue, print it or run a laptop/tablet to the pits.

Our team does something similar to this. We haven't had issues with cell data yet.

[bbradf44]

Here is a test google form i put together https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1fCb...DVMhM/viewform if people can fill out the form with test data that would be great. Because it is just test data if you could keep the "match number" field to any number under 20 and for "team number" keep it any number under 1000 all other fields just keep realistic(no ones going to be scoring 9999999 points in a match). If you have any suggestions/criticisms/things i should add please put them in the "notes" section

[jlmcmchl]

How should I be judging the coordinates fields, and "Points Made"? I've seen teams score way more than 10 points, and there is not enough information to make a good judgement on coordinates (relative to where, what unit to use).

[bbradf44]

Originally Posted by jlmcmchl

How should I be judging the coordinates fields, and "Points Made"? I've seen teams score way more than 10 points, and there is not enough information to make a good judgement on coordinates (relative to where, what unit to use).

the scouts up in the stands will have a gridded off picture of the playing field. i would want to know where on the field the robot shot from the most. I will probably get rid of the "points made" field. originally it was going to say how many total points the team made excluding assists. I may change it to ask what their total contribution to the alliance was as far as points(1 high goal, 1 assist, and 1 truss shot would be 10+10+5=25)

[jlmcmchl]

Originally Posted by bbradf44

the scouts up in the stands will have a gridded off picture of the playing field. i would want to know where on the field the robot shot from the most. I will probably get rid of the "points made" field. originally it was going to say how many total points the team made excluding assists. I may change it to ask what their total contribution to the alliance was as far as points(1 high goal, 1 assist, and 1 truss shot would be 10+10+5=25)

On the form, "Points Made" said 0-10, so I was confused.

Actually, 1 assist is worth 0 pts/robot. 2 is worth 5 pts/robot, and 3 is worth 10 pts/robot. You'll want to consider this.