So Glad That Scouting Has A Place This Year

[evanperryg]

Originally Posted by TheSousaLife

I started out last year in FRC as a proxy to my current team 1311. I traveled to the Smoky Mountain Regional and helped the one man scouting sector of my team. It was mostly very benign and pointless due to my teams absolutely atrocious robot. It did however introduce me to the wonders of FIRST and FRC. I felt like a part of something bigger, something that can change my future. After the kickoff however, I realized, I have LITTLE Skill set. That's why I can get back to my FIRST roots this year, and instead of scouting being "cop-out" this year, it actually matters! So many defenses to place, so many robots to catalog. It just makes me rather happy that with my little skill set, I can still help my team. Just thought I'd thank FIRST for making scouting important!

Trust me, I know that feeling of being totally irrelevant. As the strats monkey, I really had no purpose last year besides saying "this alliance partner does this, and the other one does this." This season, there's a lot that can vary from match to match, so my role suddenly has purpose again! Anyway, best of luck in your scouting ventures! Ultimately, having a good robot and a good driver are the two most important parts, but scouting definitely has a lot more relevance than it did last season.

[TheSousaLife]

Originally Posted by Alex Webber

we were scouting on Xbox controllers, and didn't have much time to train people.

How does one scout with Xbox controllers?

[Peyton Yeung]

Originally Posted by TheSousaLife

How does one scout with Xbox controllers?

I think one of the AZ teams used wii controllers for scouting.

[TheSousaLife]

Wii remotes? What!? I'm impressed.

[Sunnykx]

Originally Posted by Edxu

If you haven't already, I would highly recommend selecting someone who's interested in Strategy to be your team's Match Strategist.

I've been doing Match Strategy for a few years on 610, and I feel that our team has had much more impact in every match that we play. An organized, well thought-out plan that plays to the strengths of your robots can turn a mediocre alliance into a qualifications powerhouse.

The job of the Match Strategist is mainly to study the game and create a "Playbook" before a regional that contains 10-15 types of robots that you may or may not see at the regional. The Playbook contains 3-4 randomized matches of 5 of these robot types, along with your team's robot, and it is the job of the Strategy division to find the optimal way to play those randomized matches.

This is great practice in the pre-competition season, and it can greatly improve how efficiently you work at competition events. The toughest part about being the Match Strategist is when you have 2 match turnaround or even back-to-back matches at smaller events, in which case you need to be running around, talking to your alliance and evaluating the capabilities of the opposing alliance.

Edxu - I agree. Scouting will be awesome this year. I'm the scouting mentor from Team 3663. We got to the Finals in Curie at Worlds with a very carefully thought out alliance selection. Scouting is always a big deal but this year more than ever. My team and I are ecstatic about match strategy this year. Your team, 610, was awesome by the way.

One thing I'm curious about with your playbook - do you find that it really corresponds to the matches you encounter? I can see it working when applied with broad strokes (example: high goal scorer, breaching defense robot that uses an arm to manipulate Portcullis, Sally Port, Cheval de Frise, and Drawbridge, etc), but I find that each robot has such unique characteristics that our scouters need to treat them as individuals. What are your thoughts?

[TheSousaLife]

Im planning this year on allying with a decent defense robot, and one that can consistently hit low and high goals. Both need to be able to breach every obstacle, including the low bar. Preferably these robots could breach on their own, but if things such as the sally port posed issue, that would be alright.

[Edxu]

Originally Posted by Sunnykx

Edxu - I agree. Scouting will be awesome this year. I'm the scouting mentor from Team 3663. We got to the Finals in Curie at Worlds with a very carefully thought out alliance selection. Scouting is always a big deal but this year more than ever. My team and I are ecstatic about match strategy this year. Your team, 610, was awesome by the way.

One thing I'm curious about with your playbook - do you find that it really corresponds to the matches you encounter? I can see it working when applied with broad strokes (example: high goal scorer, breaching defense robot that uses an arm to manipulate Portcullis, Sally Port, Cheval de Frise, and Drawbridge, etc), but I find that each robot has such unique characteristics that our scouters need to treat them as individuals. What are your thoughts?

It's true that most robots are unique enough that we can't simulate their full capabilities, but it's excellent practice for everyone involved with match planning, and in good years, we may be able to predict the "concept" of 3-4 robots at the event, meaning 3-4 less teams that are unknown variables. The Playbook isn't used for scouting, but instead used by the Strategy division in order to be able to evaluate a robot's main role by glance, so that match planning is made more efficient.

[Alex Webber]

Originally Posted by alextried

Can you elaborate on this? I'm so curious to see how this was implemented.

Originally Posted by TheSousaLife

How does one scout with Xbox controllers?

Originally Posted by Peyton Yeung

I think one of the AZ teams used wii controllers for scouting.

Our programming team wrote our own ranking program using our own data last year. I had the responsibility of taking input from xbox controllers and transferring it to the computer, writing it entirely by myself.

We wrote a program with a display of each variable we wanted to track, and there were 6 little panels for each team. Each controller represented a panel, and when you pressed certain buttons, the variable would increase.

It had many disadvantages, and our match scooters (everyone) weren't very impressed, but the data was spot on.

[Sunnykx]

Originally Posted by Edxu

It's true that most robots are unique enough that we can't simulate their full capabilities, but it's excellent practice for everyone involved with match planning, and in good years, we may be able to predict the "concept" of 3-4 robots at the event, meaning 3-4 less teams that are unknown variables. The Playbook isn't used for scouting, but instead used by the Strategy division in order to be able to evaluate a robot's main role by glance, so that match planning is made more efficient.

Ah, yes. I call them 'Team Profiles', aka a cheat sheet for our scouters and drive teams, so that they can do the "at a glance" assessment you were talking about.

[ebarker]

Originally Posted by TheSousaLife

After the kickoff however, I realized, I have LITTLE Skill set.

Napoleon Dynamite: I don't even have any skills.
Pedro: What do you mean?
Napoleon Dynamite: You know, like nunchuck skills, bow hunting skills, computer hacking skills. Girls only like guys who have great skills.

...

Pedro: Like what are my skills?
Napoleon Dynamite: Well, you have a sweet bike. And you're really good at hooking up with chicks. Plus you're like the only guy at school who has a mustache.

...

[HelloRobot]

It was mostly very benign and pointless due to my teams absolutely atrocious robot

Hey now, 1311 was a great alliance partner (with 3984) in the quarterfinals at SMR! You guys were great.

But, yes, as Monochron said,

You have a really fantastic team of students and mentors with amazing dedication.

Best of luck this year, scouters! This thread has more info about scouting!

[evanperryg]

Originally Posted by TheSousaLife

How does one scout with Xbox controllers?

We used to do this, (except with playstation controllers) and it's actually pretty easy. We had a java program that counts keypresses, and each key is for one criteria for one team. The buttons on the controllers are then bounded to the keys. Last season, after much frustration with data reliability (some people just don't understand buttons) we switched to using an android app.

[TheSousaLife]

Originally Posted by ebarker

Napoleon Dynamite: I don't even have any skills.
Pedro: What do you mean?
Napoleon Dynamite: You know, like nunchuck skills, bow hunting skills, computer hacking skills. Girls only like guys who have great skills.

...

Pedro: Like what are my skills?
Napoleon Dynamite: Well, you have a sweet bike. And you're really good at hooking up with chicks. Plus you're like the only guy at school who has a mustache.

...

Fancy seeing you here Ed.

[ebarker]

Originally Posted by TheSousaLife

Fancy seeing you here Ed.

Join Date: 01-23-2006

10 years, 2 days