Who else uses scouting sheets?

[rick.oliver]

As Emily posted earlier, we use paper scouting sheets during the matches to assess teams' performances (offensive and defensive). We enter the data collected on the scouting sheets into excel worksheets and calculate an offensive and defensive rating for each team. This data, along with observations and judgment, are used to generate our selection list.

We also use the sheets for developing our match strategy during the Qualifying Rounds. I've attached the Word Document.

If anybody is interested in the Excel file, email me privately, the file size is too large to upload (about 360 kb, I think). I created a workbook for each division that contains the tab for each team and a summary sheet that extracts the ratings onto a single sheet for sorting.

[MChapman]

Team 176 uses scouting sheets in the pits and on the field. However thanks to one of our students with the help of a mentor he set up his very own scouting program on his laptop! Must I add that it works great!

[sebas2mil]

we have used our scouting system in the computers since 2005 and it has worked out great specially in Palmetto with the 247 scouter we came up with the stats for the quater semi and finals matches

that is what we are going to use at nationals this year but we are trying to do it wireless like in Palmetto but it won't be as easy because the wireless router might not reach

any suggestions on that????


also we are going to look at the reagionals of the other curie teams to scout them before nationals

[av11d]

We actually developed an elaborate digital scouting system in 2004. We brought a server to the competition that hosted a central database. Scouting information was entered using an HTML interface that was on a number of laptops. The database was programmed using WebObjects and stored robot/match information as well as pictures.

In 2005, we went back to paper.

[JackN]

Like Mr. Williams said we use scouting sheets. It give us easy to find reliable info on any team that we need. When all you need is one sheet that can some up a team for you it is excellent.

[AndyB]

We do scouting sheets. We honestly don't really care much about pit scouting. We do do a little bit. We scout a ton during the matches and have 1 student/mentor/parent take a robot and scout them for that match. Then we have one person as the organizer, who collects the sheets, organizes them into the pile, and then hands out new sheets. This system works pretty well as long as you have enough people to do it.

Unlike a lot of other scouting sheet systems I have seen, we only have 1 sheet per bot. This makes it a lot easier for when we are in a hurry.

Then, if we are in a picking position for the next day, that night, we either:

1.) Have me go through all of the sheets and write up a scouting report for each of them.

2.) Go through the sheets as a team, black listing teams (lol), brown listing teams, and gold listing teams. We also try to rank the top defensive teams we see as well. We did this at Nationals this year, so I don't know if it will stick. After we ranks the teams, I spend the night writing a scouting report on the teams and decide which ones we need more info on.

Then about an hour or so before the picking, I meet up with our team leader(s) and we decide a final ranking sheet for the top 20 or so bots for offense, and the top 7-8 teams for defense (Nationals). At regionals, since there are a lot less teams, we rank all of the teams.

[Nita]

Team 1190 uses scouting sheets as well.

[Jeremiah Johnson]

Well... 648 uses scouting sheets. Both pit and stand/match. They are then entered into a statistical database using Excel. This year we accurately counted the number of balls made by a single robot, how defensively minded a team was, the speed of a shooter, and their autonomous tendencies. I would post more info but the system is kinda secretive until perfected, I suppose. Ed does a great job on it every year. And thanks to the students that input the info into the computers. The data helps a lot as a coach.

[Graham Donaldson]

You can count 1676 in for this year at Palmetto as well, however we merged the two, comps and paper. Round-to-round scouting was done on papers, which then came to me at the top of the stadium for compilation. The team by team stats were printed out before each round and run down to the drive team for planning. Next year we want to develop a system that can be on a network we set up that can be accessed by the drive team in the pits on a laptop that can get a wireless signal. When a person scouts a team, after he is done he will save the info on the server and it will automatically appear on the screens it should. This is how I want to see it, but I don't know how it will work out. Our district (Pascack Valley Regional High School District in upper Bergen County, NJ) gives each student a SONY VAIO laptop with wireless access, so this makes this system much easier for us. Anyways, that's how I want to do it. But you can never beat paper for quick, flawless transfer of data (why do computers crash???)

The Canuck

[prettycolors91]

scouting sheets all the way. it gets hectic...chaotic....crazy...disorganized and so on. at least i wasnt in charge this year!

[Graham Donaldson]

Originally Posted by prettycolors91

at least i wasnt in charge this year!

Problem is that I was. I was in the lobby of our hotel [in Columbia for the Palmetto Regional] until 10 o'clock compiling everything just for the matches that we knew we would have the next day. It was a chore, but knowing that the scouting we had was a good part of the reason we got to the finals as a second-year team made it all worth it.

[Brian C]

1468 also uses dead trees and sticks, er.... I mean paper and pencils to scout with. Our old team 311 also used this as we found it to be more reliable.

The biggest thing we run into is to make sure everyone scouting is using the same terminology when referring to a mechanism/robot/playing style/whatever. After the robot ships we record video from some of the scrimmages or first week regionals and have the scouting team practice scouting while watching the video. While not perfect it allows the scouters to learn what to look for and also allows us to refine the form layout.

We usually end up with about 5 or 6 revisions until we come up with something that can be used and understood easily.

We have found from experiance that to much information or detail can be just as bad as not enough information.

[RoboMadi]

There are few ways this job can be done in simple ways.

1. Have your scouts going around with paper and pencil to gather information. At the same time have them report back to one person who will computerized the whole data (Word or Notepad would work). So by the time your team get to a match, one only have to use Ctrl+F and type in the team number to find the information.

2. Last year our programmers were really bored, so they put together a program called ScoutPro. It was simply build and was mainly to input data about teams, including the result of all the matches and etc. Unfortunately the license expired and we were not able to use it this year.

Other than that, using paper-pencil method is simple and more fun. You don't have to carry a laptop around, plus you actually 'talk' to the other team and take notes instead of supporting a laptop on your lap and trying to type in the data.

[Jeff Waegelin]

In the past 6 years, I've used strictly paper 3 times, an Access database once, Pocket PCs once, and a paper/excel hybrid once. Each, I've found, has its own benefits and problems.

Paper is generally the easiest to use if you have limited resources and limited planning/preparation time. You can make a good paper scouting system in a couple of hours, print it out, and you're done. Paper allows for maximum flexibility in writing notes, drawing pictures, and generally using it for whatever you feel is necessary information. It also has the lowest "learning curve" for bringing new scouting people up to speed. That being said, paper is cumbersome. Often times, sheets aren't filled out properly (or at all!), and whoever is organizing the scouting has to sift through reams and reams of paper to find the relevant information. You also have to keep all the sheets organized, and it usually takes one dedicated person just to organize sheets for the 6 scouters. All things considered, however, if I were to be running scouting again, with a small team, I'd probably stick with paper because of the simplicity of management and development.

The method my team used this year was one step up in technology: using Excel to record data from scouting sheets (which were shared with another team). This was helpful in that it allowed us (a very small team) to share scouting data with another, larger team. It consolidated the data into one place for viewing, which was also nice. However, the sheets we used were poorly designed for excel viewing, and the people who recorded data into excel often missed important things, like the fact that 365 liked to drive up onto the ramp to score. If I were to do this again, I would design my own sheets to be computer-oriented from the beginning, and possibly consider a more robust program, like Access, for managing data.

The most complicated method I've ever used was the Pocket PC system my high school team used in 2003. We had 5 Pocket PCs, 4 for recording match data, and one for the drive team to view before matches. The software was written from scratch by one of the students, and it could be viewed in Pocket Internet Explorer. All the data then went into a database on a laptop in the stands. It was supposed to be synchronized using Wi-Fi, but the amount of interference, and the low power of the wireless on the PPCs made this impossible. We resorted to using sync cables to manually synchronize data, which was very difficult and cumbersome. We also had issues with students playing solitaire instead of scouting Being able to pull up pictures of each of the match's robots, and view any data I wanted before a match was a nice touch, but the system itself was... difficult to work with at best. A more robust and organized system might have solved this, but I never really warmed up to the palm scouting idea. If I had a large budget (palms are the most expensive method) and lots of pre-season software development time or enough personnel to program it during the season, I might consider it again, though.

Of everything I used, though, the one that worked best was the Access database. I used it in 2002, which, fortunately was a simple game. We had one person enter all the data directly into the computer. It was comprehensive, easy to use, and very easy to get data out. Unfortunately, given the complexity of most games, it wouldn't be possible to do it exactly like this anymore. If I were to do it now, though, I think it would be fairly easy to have scouters write information on sheets or palms, and import the data into Access. It makes things a lot easier to view than Excel, and it's easier to organize volumes of data into a structure that makes sense. If I had my way, this is probably how I'd do scouting, as a paper/Access hybrid, or maybe palm/Access if I'm feeling adventurous.

[Joohoo]

we used sheets this year, but one thing that was pretty cool was a java applet, that allowed a scout to record and show an individual team's auto modes.