Scouting in the Offseason

[master_nickz]

Does anyone have advice regarding the best ways to scout over the offseason? I am surprised at the overall lack of activity in this sub-forum, as scouting comprises a huge role to be competitive.

[EricH]

Scouting is mainly an "at the event"/"during the season" activity. Without knowing the game, we can't know what we're looking for, can we? The main thing people do is develop new systems.

If you want practice, develop a sheet for last year's game, then watch match videos and scout the teams in them. (If they're official webcasts, don't expect to get full info.) Repeat as necessary. When the new season comes, repeat for the new game.

[AndyB]

We, 171, are working on a PDA scouting system that will transmit data via wifi back to the pits.

[Akash Rastogi]

If its just for offseason, some teams may not bother. For example, we use offseason comps. to just get ppl practicing on robots and drivers for the new season.

[Robostang 548]

On the Robostangs we are completely rebuilding our scouting software from the ground up. One of the really amazing things about our scouting program last year was our match simulator. We put it into our program just as a sort of toy for our scouters but it ended up being 97% accurate even though the data was really bias because it was about how compatible teams were with our bot. Were putting in a totally new GUI and hopefully will have our program running networked between laptops this year. Right now we are building it using the Rack-n-Roll game for debugging purposes but when the kickoff rolls around we will change it. Below is a link to a pic of last years program.

http://www.chiefdelphi.com/media/photos/27455

-Don

[ewankoff]

When we go to a new regional we do a little pre-scouting. We look at the results from previous regionals and previous years to see the who's who of that regional. Other than that it is all during the build season task for us.

[Eugenia Gabrielov]

Though you might not be able to specifically scout for the next game, here are a few things that may benefit your team as a whole in seasons to come that you can work on in the off-season:

- Improve general strategy: Make up a game. It could be a water game with jello rockets and a rollercoaster robot track, whatever. Have team members strategize through the game - think about offense, defense, robot features, maybe even draw up a design. This will prepare you and your team members for kick off by allowing everybody to think clearly, as well as encouraging respectful discussion.

- Revamp your scouting programs by analyzing how things went the last year. Outline how you thought you scouted, how you wanted to scout, and what you can improve. Commit to one concrete thing that you plan to change before the next competition season. If you achieve that, commit to another, but by going one step at a time you can really identify your problem areas and fix them.

- Run scouting on old matches, without giving any basis to scout on. Let people go with instinct, point out what they think is most important without being concerned about fulfilling a form. You can really get a natural feel for what your strategy team thinks about, and structure your scouting system to their needs.

- Last but not least, try to look critically at the role your team has played in an alliance in the past. Are you a defender? Are you on offense? Be critical of yourself, ask big questions: Are you cooperative? Can you give up your personal strategic plan for the greater needs of the alliance? How do you react with picked, or when you aren't picked? These aren't technically scouting, but the image of your team (in particular how well you work on an alliance) can make a huge difference between what teams want to work with you.

Hope that helps!

[Saru29]

A good thing you could do is start teaching scouts about the different parts of robots and how they effect performance. This can help prepare them for pit scouting and at the same time, help prepare them for when that time to design a new robot comes around. Alot of scouting horror stories out there involve kids not knowing what they are doing when pit scouting. This might help solve this problem.

Off season competitions are also a perfect opportunity to start training new scouts. Get them introduced to the system and start talking to them about strategy. A scout who thinks strategically is extremely valuable. If you have a big team, it might also be a good way of choosing who will be scouting for regionals and nationals.

[master_nickz]

Thank you so much for your guys' ideas! They are truly helpful!