New System for Scouting?

[Cartwright]

This year, I was one of the two scouting leaders for Cyber Blue, 234. We given the opportunity this year to experiment using Pocket PCs as a part of our Scouting system by our school district's administrative office. First, we just experimented using the PDAs to see how accessible they would be. We found that one of the most important things about Scouting using a PDA system is that it must be done quickly, easily, and accurately. We eventually found that the Pocket PC version of Excel was the best program. We created a template in which we used a 1-10 scale on physical qualities and strengths to the robot. We also had a y/n part about penalties and other information that could be covered that way. For scoring, we simply said how many they scored on each level H/M/L. We saved each file under a special name correlating to their place on the field (ex: Red 1 or Blue 3) and the match number. Using Bluetooth on the pocket PC's we had one that was used for taking the files from each Pocket PC. The problem with this is that we had to grab each file one at a time making the process slow. We did this periodically through the matches to gather information for our next match. When we had gathered the files, the master Pocket PC was then plugged in to our Scouting Laptop. We had an Excel database on the laptop that put the files into a nice Spreadsheet that gave us averages and ranges of the scores, and numbers that determined overall abilities of the robot. The problem with this system is that one small mistake could change the outcome or cause an error. With proper trainging of your scouters though, this type of system can be great though.

What you need:

At least 6 PDAs: 7 or 8 is better because they do run low on battery power.
A Scouting Laptop: Formats all the information into one spreadsheet and creates a better presentation for drivers and mentors to see.
TRAINING: Train all your scouters very thoroughly to make information as accurate as possible. It is very easy to press the wrong letter when typing with a stylus.


This year, we had a whole backup system of paper scouting forms to because we weren't sure how well the PDA system would work. In addition these served as a better place for marking Robot strengths and weaknesses.

GOOD LUCK!