Looking Ahead: S.O.A.P.

[Silence]

Well the seasons done, and though many may or may not have noticed, we've undergone some serious changes. SigmaC@T's own "SigmaC@T Opponent Analysis Program" aka S.O.A.P. will be under new management next year, and my co-manager and I will be going on to college. (Though I'm considering sticking around as a mentor.)

The website has been changed, it was a rocky transition, and a lot of the links are still failing to work correctly, however the basic functions are there. The firefox problem has been solved with the new site, and the movies are up. My personal apoligies for the features that aren't working correctly yet, but give us some time.

The point of all this is, we'd like to know how we can improve S.O.A.P. for next year's competition. Just to get the ball rolling, we've been considering some things of our own.

SigmaC@T would like S.O.A.P. to start growing, we'd like to extend an offer to the rest of the teams out there. We need volunteer's to expand our reach to regionals we personally can't visit. We need teams to assist us in gathering information that's too detailed for us to handle on our own. Basically, we need your help. My personal thoughts are to create a S.O.A.P. Discipline (Sub-Team, Division, Dept, etc.) on every team that signs up to assist us, with credit given where its due. The tasks given to the teams assiting will be relatively easy. SigmaC@T will continue to produce S.O.A.P. manuals with detailed step-by-step instructions (With diagrams and pictures) on set up and running the infrastructure. We've done this for years, but this time, we want to see how far we can take it. Tell us your thoughts, and let's work together to take on the tedious efforts of scouting and data collection.

-David "Silence" Auguste
S.O.A.P. Co-Manager

[Stephen Kowski]

Originally Posted by Silence

SigmaC@T will continue to produce S.O.A.P. manuals with detailed step-by-step instructions (With diagrams and pictures) on set up and running the infrastructure.

where are these? and do they document the process of your encoding setup? I would think that teams would be happy to SOAP up there regional if they understood the process better....

[Mike AA]

Is there a link somewhere on the site to access the rest of the regionals? it was there a week or so ago now all I can access are the nationals

-Mike

[Joe Matt]

The new site looks great so far! I am wondering, when will you get the Finals and awards videos up?

[Swampdude]

Originally Posted by Stephen Kowski

where are these? and do they document the process of your encoding setup? I would think that teams would be happy to SOAP up there regional if they understood the process better....

That's exactly what I was thinking when I read this. If you post the process here, maybe you'll elay our fears on the matter. It seems like it's not all that hard of a process. But a bit scary to volunteer to help with something you've no idea how to do.

Also I saw a lot of wireless networks available at Nats. I also used the Sundial thing from 296 (very cool). I think as time passes a lot of teams will have wireless laptops in their pits. If SOAP hosted those videos on a wireless network at the comps, incorporated a scouting database and possibly the sundial thing. We'd be in the 20th century!

Being able to review a match in your pit, right after it's over would be fantastic. Having 1 source IMO is a great way to go. I would gladly have my students contributing to a scouting system as long as it reflected what we were looking for. A lot of times these scouting systems ask for a lot of superfluos things. So I guess it would require a commity built system to ensure we could benefit from it as well as others.

Thanks SOAP and co. you guys rock! I was thrilled to see 108 on Einstien also. Congrats

[Silence]

where are these? and do they document the process of your encoding setup? I would think that teams would be happy to SOAP up there regional if they understood the process better....

We've been having some problems since nationals. We'll post the document up here as well as on the S.O.A.P. site as soon as we solve a few issues, it should be about a week or so.

Is there a link somewhere on the site to access the rest of the regionals? it was there a week or so ago now all I can access are the nationals

We made Nationals a priority when attempting to launch version 2 of the site. Because of this, currently the previous years movies are no longer up. You can still reach the old site following the "SOAPv1" link on the main page. We'll get the older movies up on the new site soon.

The new site looks great so far! I am wondering, when will you get the Finals and awards videos up?

Whoops, that was actually my own fault. My laptop is out of my hands currently but as soon as I get some much needed luck goin, I'll upload them immeadiately.

- David "Silence" Auguste
S.O.A.P. Co-Manager

[Bharat Nain]

As long as you guys can provide the necessary equipment and manuals/training, I can arrange a webcast/videos for the regionals team 25 goes to.

[Brant Bowen]

I think that the push for expanision of SOAP is a great idea that has been close to happening in past years, it just has never had that final push to its full potential. I personally have worked with the SOAP system on a few different occasions and would more than willing to work with you guys on the expansion.

Unfortunately, with my graduating this year and my transistion to a team at college, I can't commit a team to the effort. I can suggest that there are some students on Team 234 that have worked with the system before and might be willing to get Cyber Blue to volunteer towards the SOAP effort. Let us know what we can do to help!

[Chris Fultz]

MAybe a target growth group of volunteers could be the colelge students from FIRST teams who cannot commit time to be mentors with a team, or maybe there is no team near their school.

Possibly this group could do regionals all over -?

[Mike AA]

Just went back to the soap website and it looks better and more links work with the other regionals you guys recorded. Thanks for the hard work. Would you like copies of the files for the West Michigan Regional? I should have these completed by Wednesday.

-Mike

[tiffany34990]

talking to my team...i think s.p.a.m. and s.o.a.p. can work something out...we love what you guys do and of course want to see s.o.a.p. still running forever...

[Specialagentjim]

Originally Posted by Swampdude

Being able to review a match in your pit, right after it's over would be fantastic. Having 1 source IMO is a great way to go. I would gladly have my students contributing to a scouting system as long as it reflected what we were looking for. A lot of times these scouting systems ask for a lot of superfluos things. So I guess it would require a commity built system to ensure we could benefit from it as well as others.

Thanks SOAP and co. you guys rock! I was thrilled to see 108 on Einstien also. Congrats

That's actually exactly what a team meeting discussion this year was on. We had our drive team get involved in our scouting system and it was pretty much said that "You dont need to know the gear ratios of the chain sprockets from point a to point b on the robot. You need to know what its going to do when that buzzer goes off and then what its going to do when that timer hits 120". Beyond that, vital info is "Is it fast? Is it stoppable? Is it worth stopping? etc." The concensus on SOAP was no one would ever want to see "Not worth stopping" on the SOAP report, but to become an accurate system, its nessacary.

Also, thanks! This year has been an amazing rollercoaster and I still can't believe we made it to Einstein.

[Koko Ed]

OK the SOAP webpage account has been suspended.
What's going on?

[Randy]

Odd.

You can access the videos directly via http://www.soap.circuitrunners.com/2005/movies/

[Ryan Foley]

Originally Posted by Chris Fultz

MAybe a target growth group of volunteers could be the colelge students from FIRST teams who cannot commit time to be mentors with a team, or maybe there is no team near their school.

Possibly this group could do regionals all over -?

That is a great idea Chris. It would be a great way for some of us team-less college FIRST nuts to stay in FIRST despite not being on a team.

Team 108: Perhaps you should create a list somewhere of who is covering which regional, so that people who want to join in know which ones are open, or who to talk to about helping at a regional that's already taken.