FRC4048 has just placed their scouting software up on github; teams are welcome to grab a copy and customize it as they see fit. This code was written for the 2016 season (Stronghold) so some game specific changes will obliviously have to be made for 2017.
The package works like this. A set of six Amazon Fire tablets ($50 each) run an Android app to collect match data (one tablet per robot per match). At regular intervals (as frequently as once per match), the tablets are collected and their data uploaded to a master Windows laptop via bluetooth (WiFi is not allowed in competitions) and stored in a database. This only take a second. When desired, Tableau is used to parse and visualize the data. That’s it.
We used Fire tablets for their size, cost and decent battery life. We used this last year and the scouts loved it. It’s easy to use and provides quick feedback. Customizing it for a new game (SteamWorks) will require some knowledge of databases schema, among other things. But luckily the underlying framework of data collection, bluetooth transfer, and file management remains the same. It’s really up to you to create a user interface and database schema that reflects your scouting needs.
We’ll make more updates to this software in the coming weeks. If you have any suggestions, we welcome your feedback. The Github repository is here:
https://github.com/FRC4048/Scouting2016