Scouting: looking for an excel sheet

[mjustice66]

Hello all,
I currently have scouting sheets together for my teams upcoming competition. We have everything prepared with the exception of an excel sheet or something similar to input all of our scouting data. If anyone can point me in the direction of a system to put our data in it would be greatly appreciated.

[alicen]

Do you absolutely need/want an excel sheet, or would you be interested in putting your information into a global database that gives you access to averages, as well as keeping your raw information intact?

If it's the latter, I would absolutely love it if you put your scouting data into my application here: http://frcstats.org:8000/home/

You can also find more information here: http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...58#post1546558
or send me a PM!

[mjustice66]

Unfortunately, that wont work. I want something that I can run at competition (without wifi). Do you have any other suggestions?

[Cothron Theiss]

Unless I am misunderstanding what you mean, my suggestion is to make your own. Work with the people that collect your data, your strategists and drivers that will be utilizing the data, and make a Scouting sheet that everyone is ok with using. Then practice with it, and discover everything that is wrong with your Scouting sheet.

[IronicDeadBird]

Originally Posted by mjustice66

Unfortunately, that wont work. I want something that I can run at competition (without wifi). Do you have any other suggestions?

Well lets get constraints you have out of the way shall we?

[evanperryg]

Originally Posted by mjustice66

Unfortunately, that wont work. I want something that I can run at competition (without wifi). Do you have any other suggestions?

GearScout can be used without a mobile data connection. 6 people with android phones, and the zip file I posted on CD-media recently, and you're on your way.

[TimTheGreat]

If you have 6 web-browser enabled devices and a computer you can create an ad-hoc server and run roboscout_2016. It's a great platform that creates a detailed analysis of teams (specifically, which defenses they have successfully crossed the least). It's definitely worth your time to check it out.

At our competition they have wifi in the school, so we run the web server on a rpi and connect iPads to it. But if you have a computer you can create an ad-hoc network and do the same thing easily.

[Boltman]

Personally would not go with "stats" they can be very misleading..eyes on bots is way to go. Believe me I scout and it seems to work (started scouting heavily last year..and our scouting department). I know bots better than even their drive team does...what it can do and cant do and what it had for dinner. I have a scout staff that always finds the right bots for us. After all scouting has three main jobs.

1. Help win quals with detailed intel on bots upcoming (partners and competitors) to hopefully rank top 8 or higher.
2. Look for alliance partners that fit your style and can maximize the score of your elimination alliance with bots left.
3. Find weaknesses/tendencies of all other alliances you will face in eliminations.

Then you can relax and enjoy the eliminations. Scouting as confirmed by drive team and results makes a huge difference. I find it equal to engineering and driving. All three are very important.

I simply use stats to confirm what my eyes saw and to add any I might have "missed'. I have an awesome scout staff that does the same. Teams love the detailed notes we take. Makes for customized alliance selection too.

For instance stats said we had goal points when we did not fire in a single goal yesterday. Go figure.

[GKrotkov]

Here's 1712's 1st iteration of an excel sheet for 2016, along with an explanation. I have no idea whether this will work for your sheets in particular, but feel free to PM me if you have any questions about modifying it.

http://www.chiefdelphi.com/media/papers/3225


Edit: Oh, hey, I notice you already downloaded it. Never mind.

[Jon Stratis]

We use a scouting spreadsheet that utilizes macros pretty heavily.

The first tab is identical to our paper scouting sheets - that makes input a lot easier. It has some custom defined lists so that, for example, you pick the current match from a drop down and it automatically populates the team numbers that are playing in that match. Then there's a nice big "submit" button that calls a macro - that macro simply copies all the information over to a data tab, which keeps the data for a single team in a single match in a single row. For example, there's 6 rows for match one, one for each team. And by the end of the competition each team has 8-10 rows, depending on how many matches they have.

On that second data tab, there's another submit button that kicks off another macro. That macro goes through the data tab and does a bit of math. It identifies every row for a particular team, then combines them into a single row on another tab representing the team's overall contribution. For example, there might be a "total high goal shots made" column, a "total high goal shots missed" column, and then a "% shots made" column. That way, if you're looking at alliance selection and want a high goal shooter, you can sort by those columns to see who shoots the most, makes the most, missed the least, etc. Likewise, there can be columns for each individual defense so you know what teams are capable off (important for selecting defenses in each match!).

Anyways, with the reliance on macros and more advanced excel functions like custom lists, it can be difficult to adapt something like that to a different set of data. If you're comfortable trying, let me know and I can send over one I have for you to work on!

[jojoguy10]

Originally Posted by evanperryg

GearScout can be used without a mobile data connection. 6 people with android phones, and the zip file I posted on CD-media recently, and you're on your way.

I'm really liking gear scout, but I can get it to save the data. It says that "team, match, regional, or your team number is missing." I was trying to test it with the Auburn Mountainview District. That regional code was WAAMV, right?

[JustinCAD]

Our scouting team this year is trying something new - Google Docs.

In the past we have used pencil & paper, which tends to be tedious over time. Once we collected data with the paper, a scouter would continuously type all of the data into an excel sheet. The system wasn't as efficient as we hoped.

This year, I realized that Google Docs could help us with this problem. We made an Google Sheet for each team that was going to be at our competition, and made a template to fill out for each team.

Due to it's feature of auto-updating, Google Docs is internet dependent. Most (not all) venues have an accessible Wi-Fi network. If no network is available, scouters can download the Google Docs app, and just work off of mobile data. I did a count on how many team members would be able to work on their phones for scouting, and about two-thirds of the team are able to.

I have not yet used this at a competition, so we have yet to see if it works well!

[Boltman]

Originally Posted by JustinCAD

Our scouting team this year is trying something new - Google Docs.

In the past we have used pencil & paper, which tends to be tedious over time. Once we collected data with the paper, a scouter would continuously type all of the data into an excel sheet. The system wasn't as efficient as we hoped.

This year, I realized that Google Docs could help us with this problem. We made an Google Sheet for each team that was going to be at our competition, and made a template to fill out for each team.

Due to it's feature of auto-updating, Google Docs is internet dependent. Most (not all) venues have an accessible Wi-Fi network. If no network is available, scouters can download the Google Docs app, and just work off of mobile data. I did a count on how many team members would be able to work on their phones for scouting, and about two-thirds of the team are able to.

I have not yet used this at a competition, so we have yet to see if it works well!

In quals its better for your team to take care of business than overly scout
you win by outscoring and earning a breaching point (maybe scaling)... so scouting during quals has little effect on outcomes IMO in this game as everyone will be playing for max scores...sure its good to know what defenses teams cannot cross but that's about it apart from expecting a defensive bot. Throw out all other stats and take notes on team tendencies (weaknesses/strengths) and how fast they score. (cycle times)

Take my advice to simplify your scouting .... figure out what your team does most efficiently by watching them by match 4..then that's your "thing" then find (20-24) other bots to compliment what you do and add what you cannot do. Also look for re-purposed defenders and if you cheesecake bots those that can be ...also Reliability and consistency are huge this year, that is what wins regional.

So as you are scouting in qualifications.... look for bots that do what you "don't do best and most efficiently/reliably " and build a list 20-24 deep. In 2015 we started this approach..we just took down alliance #1 as alliance #8 in two games (That never happens). It works. Only reason we did not win was our mechanical issues with boulder getting stuck in SF. Won't happen in CV we have a solution.

If you can customize your alliance buy finding two other perfectly matched bots your chances go way up to go to St Louis.

I only use stats to verify I did not miss any...I only found four that I reevaluated the next day.... 1/2 of the field will not be playing in eliminations so over scouting half the bots is noise you don't need..eyes on bots is the way to go. It works.

I had our alliance..we had a real good strong one as alliance #8. Had not been for mechanical issues I am certain we would have been in Finals as #8 because we had a great alliance and a good plan.

Now that my team scouted SD ..we can simplify for CV we now know what to find (and we know ourselves).

Remember numbers do not show how a team really plays nor how consistent they are or reliable...its a fatal flaw to numbers scouting in a game year like this. Any questions? feel free to PM me.

[JustinCAD]

Originally Posted by Boltman

In quals its better for your team to take care of business than overly scout
you win by outscoring and earning a breaching point (maybe scaling)... so scouting during quals has little effect on outcomes IMO in this game as everyone will be playing for max scores...sure its good to know what defenses teams cannot cross but that's about it apart from expecting a defensive bot. Throw out all other stats and take notes on team tendencies (weaknesses/strengths) and how fast they score. (cycle times)

Take my advice to simplify your scouting .... figure out what your team does most efficiently by watching them by match 4..then that's your "thing" then find (20-24) other bots to compliment what you do and add what you cannot do. Also look for re-purposed defenders and if you cheesecake bots those that can be ...also Reliability and consistency are huge this year, that is what wins regional.

So as you are scouting in qualifications.... look for bots that do what you "don't do best and most efficiently/reliably " and build a list 20-24 deep. In 2015 we started this approach..we just took down alliance #1 as alliance #8 in two games (That never happens). It works. Only reason we did not win was our mechanical issues with boulder getting stuck in SF. Won't happen in CV we have a solution.

If you can customize your alliance buy finding two other perfectly matched bots your chances go way up to go to St Louis.

I only use stats to verify I did not miss any...I only found four that I reevaluated the next day.... 1/2 of the field will not be playing in eliminations so over scouting half the bots is noise you don't need..eyes on bots is the way to go. It works.

I had our alliance..we had a real good strong one as alliance #8. Had not been for mechanical issues I am certain we would have been in Finals as #8 because we had a great alliance and a good plan.

Now that my team scouted SD ..we can simplify for CV we now know what to find (and we know ourselves).

Remember numbers do not show how a team really plays nor how consistent they are or reliable...its a fatal flaw to numbers scouting in a game year like this.

Thank you for your advice, it really gave me another perspective on Scouting.

If I am understanding your post correctly, it's that scouting the numbers isn't as important noticing and recording each team's weaknesses and strengths? In my opinion, recording each team's strengths and weaknesses are important, but also getting down the numbers are equally important.

Many teams have two types of Scouting: Pit Scouting and Match Scouting. Both can have a major impact on seeking out teams that fit your style.

Pit Scouting is finding the capabilities of each robot. Going around to each team's pit, observing the robot, and asking their drive team some questions is where you can find the weaknesses/strengths of each robot. Yes, I've seen some instances where pit scouting isn't always effective, but that is where Match Scouting can verify the results, as you briefly stated in your reply.

Match Scouting is the numbers work of it - getting the data from what a scouter sees on the field. Seeing it firsthand, as well as recording it, can really help in solidifying the information given in Pit Scouting. This sorts the true from the false.

Thank you for advice, and our team will be considering your style of scouting this year. I guess everyone has their different style of doing things, especially scouting, and it's this difference in style that keeps things interesting

I digressed. OP, the best option IMO would probably look at the different scouting apps available. You don't have to necessarily use them, but looking at their templates for inputting data can give you a basis to make your own excel sheet. Once you have a basis, customize it as you wish.

[Captain_Kirch]

Originally Posted by Jon Stratis

We use a scouting spreadsheet that utilizes macros pretty heavily.

...

Anyways, with the reliance on macros and more advanced excel functions like custom lists, it can be difficult to adapt something like that to a different set of data. If you're comfortable trying, let me know and I can send over one I have for you to work on!

I know that I've always had to create a new system every year. You're right, you cant just re-use, but that's part of the challenge. We cant re-use robots, we cant re-use code, we can only carry our knowledge on. Take what you already know from previous years and make something even better.

I risk being rude here so apologies in advance. It seems like you're asking a bit much for a member of the community to do this for you. You wouldn't ask Chief Delphi to program your robot would you?

If you want something easier I suggest using pivot tables. Tableau is pretty simple it would replace that second sheet you mentioned.