Example Scouting Sheet

[phencer42]

I just thought it would be nice for me to put out a basic scouting sheet for new teams and for vets who are too busy to make one. I noticed that there weren't any others up on CD and I had the one I was planning on using for our team. Constructive criticism is encouraged and feel free to post your versions and help the FIRST community.

[EricH]

You asked for constructive criticism...

1) CD-Media. The official document-sharing area on CD. Threads are fine, but CD-Media documents can get those easily enough.

2) If you're only scouting 1 team per sheet, you don't need the information on partners. You can have 1 designated scouting match list to provide that.

3) "Pickup Device Description" can be done on Thursday. There are two types of scouting: pit scouting and match scouting. Pickup device description would better fit in pit scouting.

4) What is "Wheel #"? If it's # of wheels on the robot, that's a pit scouting item.

5) Points can be calculated later. Excel can help.

6) Include some estimation of passing through the Airlock. This helps identify teams that can help deprive your opponents of ammunition.

7) Penalties--you may want an amount. Describe in the notes.

8) Excel is your friend. You can use the information on this sheet to make an Excel spreadsheet and weight the various categories according to what your robot can/can't do. That way, when you go out to pick teams, you know which teams complement yours and are a good fit.

It's a very good start. I've done scouting sheets for years, and this is one of the best ones I've seen.

[phencer42]

Thank you. Here's an update.
I put most of the info that could be put on other sheets on for quick reference.

[Killraine]

It would be great if this were up as a white paper and not hidden in a thread

(@ phencer42: Your signature divides by zero. Please fix this before you destroy the world. Oh shi-

[Ian Curtis]

My comments about your updated sheet:

First off, spacing. If you're round scouting every team ever single match, that's a lot of paper. By getting rid of the empty space, you could shrink this down to half a sheet, which cuts your paper usage in half.

Do you particularly care about the number of wheels or alliance? If you're going to Pit scout, that can be done there. If you're not, how does the number of wheels affect their performance?

I can see why you'd list partners and opponents, but to save space and time, it's probably easier to delete them and just give the people going over the data a match list.

Again, in round scouting do you care about how they collect balls? You can see how many balls they are getting in, so do you care how? Also, depending on your scouts, subjectivity can become an issue.

What does autonomous points possible mean?

In the past, we've had a space for our scouts to draw the robots path. I think that gives you a much better of idea of what the robot is up to. If something important happens that can't be drawn, they can always just draw it on the side.

Do you want to know which trailer moon rocks go into? It might be useful.

Total points will be available on the internet possibly live, definitely that evening. It makes it easier on your scouts if they don't have to record information like that.

Once again, subjectivity can really mess up your data. A robot I'd give a 5, might be an 8 to someone else.

Hope that helps, you're off to a great start!

[phencer42]

Originally Posted by iCurtis

What does autonomous points possible mean?

It means whether they can reasonably score during autonomous.

I think your other suggestions are good for paper-saving but I think mine is better for quick reference. You may change it and post it if you like. I also like the drawing idea. Thank you

[phencer42]

Thought it might be nice to have team names on the sheet in addition to their numbers for quicker recognition.