Advice for a hapless rookie?

[DjAlamose]

My suggestion, Watch the regional’s and make your own database. I have found it easier to make your own in MS Access or Excel. You get the information you want, its customizable, and you don't have to enter extraneous information that you might not want of need.

As for scouting wise, on Thursday get all of the pit scouting out of the way. By pit scouting I mean going up to each and EVERY team and asking them about their robot. This is when you want to ask as many questions as possible. The answers may be biased but you will know things like number of speed transmission and how fast the robot is. You will also know their main functions such as shooting or corner dumper. Also take pictures of the robot for reference (it helps allot). We use PowerPoint for this. That way we can view the PowerPoint and go through the robots and see what ones do what.

Then on Friday and Saturday have a group of student watch the matches and take down information on what the teams actually did. Its hard to count the number of balls that go into a corner goal but you can count the number of shots made into the center goal. Also look for things like is the robot strictly defensive and how good is their human player. This will be the most valuable information. All you need is a database to enter that information into. I would suggest using Microsoft access. It provides a good way to enter and sort data. But you can always use Excel.

Start designing the database now. It’s actually not as hard as it may seem. Tthe programs come with wizards that can help you make the forms and databases work.

[Lisa Perez]

Also, don't forget to check the White Papers section of Chief Delphi. Some teams have already uploaded scouting sheets for all to use.

Keep in mind that, while pit scouting can be done by one person, it is *awfully* hard to do match scouting solo. I'd suggest pulling in 5 other students so that each one can keep track of one robot during the match.

Feel free to PM or IM me if you have any other questions.