Being rookies, I think our team - 2337 - did a super job in scouting during the course of the season. It was all done manually by various students on a preprinted form (as I assume most teams do it). Unfortunately, all the info that was generated then had to be manually added to the master on the head mentor’s computer for compilation . This activity took hours to complete and went into the early morning hours most of the time. Another mentor and I were discussing options to simplify the process. One of the thoughts we had was to use multiple PDA’s, collect the data on the various bots assigned to different students, and then “dump” the info into the master spreadsheet at the end of each day.
From my experience in other sports, there is a software program called digital scout (I think) for use on Palms. It can be used to track everthing related to the specific sport it’s geared for and makes quick work of compiling anything the coaches want to look at.
I know it’s a long shot as I don’t believe a major software company would create a canned program for FIRST events, but does anybody know of anything similar that has been or could be used for our comps?? - doesn’t have to be for Palms - any PDA would work.
Or, are there any teams out there that have computerized their scouting and would be willing to share???
This year, 1629 used a database created on HanDBase to track all of the robots. We had 7 palms in use: one for each position on the field and one master which we used to collect all of the data and dump it on the laptop.
HanDBase proved to have several problems, but overall the scouting this year was much more effective and fun than any time we had used paper forms, especially for those who had to input the data. It was also helpful to give information to our team almost instantly.
I’ll see if we can share our scouting system at our next meeting.
Yes scouting was very hectic, and caused a lot of stress for our scout captain. if there are some simplier ways of scouting i thing everyone could benefit.
We have 1 sheet for every team. Whoever is running scouting operations files through the sheets and hands out the 6 for that match. Scouters, when done with the match, hand the sheets to a person on a computer who enters them in right there and then. Then the sheets go back into the pile. We leave enough room on the sheets to record 8-10 matches/team.
For years we have been using the method of giving scouting binders out to the students, and having them fill out information on each match in which they get one robot to scout. Then we input the information into a program on the computer.
We are thinking about switching to PDA’s but would like to do it cheaply. If anyone has info on how we could get this done please notify me.
I know 330 has an almost automatic system. Scouts collect data manually, then the data is entered into an Excel sheet every few matches by hand. After that, the spreadsheet does the rest. Puts the data with the team, in match order, and it can be sorted any way they like. There’s been talk of linking laptops on short-range wireless, but I don’t quite know if that’s happened yet.
Well we were a rookie team this year as well, and when it came to scouting it wasn’t all that organized, specifically, does anyone know programs, or maybe even a suggestion to how we might achieve a more organized system, because this year we were not sure as to what traits in a robot might be useful, so any tips on how we might determine those next year??
Analyze the game. Any trait can be useful to scout, including reliability and penalties. Excel seems to be the most common.
To build a system: Determine ways to score points. Autonomous/hybrid mode points should be included. Make one column for each (or row, if you prefer). Figure out what is best going to complement you, e.g. hurdler or lapbot, and then assign a weighting (often between 1 and 5) to each scoring method. Also have defense and penalties as weighted columns (penalties as negative, probably). Include space for comments. You can then either put in numbers of a given action or a rating. Compile the data into a spreadsheet (which you probably used to build a scouting sheet). Then you can sort, average, graph, analyze, and over-analyze to your heart’s content.
The above is how I like to build a sheet; there are ways to make it easier to input data than each cell manually, but I don’t know them yet.
It’s our 2008 Scouting Database that runs on 6 networked laptops. It is extremely easy to use (fill in the blanks basically), and great to help analyze data. I would PM Larry Lewis with any other questions, but I hope this is helpful! (We will obviously make a new database for the 2009 game)
I have my scouting program I made (http://frcdb.redjacket.ws/), it has been to three events over the last two seasons, it is web based and programmed to have a very quick, clean, and intuitive user interface, so it can be used on a mobile device or laptop. I am not not quite happy with how I have been doing some stuff, some of it needs to be re-designed, but overall I have been told it is awesome. I am planning some features for next year, like an IRC robot that can report and edit match data, which kind of works at the moment, and a conceptual plan of entering data from a TI-84.
I put it under the GPLv3 last year (finally), and have been using Git, a revision control system, to track changes. Anyone is invited to clone and contribute
Team 1676 for the past two years have used web based forms for scouting. They have used PHP/MySQL and Rails/PHP/MySQL for this year. We have 6 students scouting with laptops via either Wi-Fi or CAT-5e Ethernet connections at regionals. Students scout 1 robot and then submit all the required data at the conclusion of the match.
We then can do whatever we want with the raw data and “additional comments” field to help us during the competition.
We used 6 Dell Pocket PCs (actually five and a laptop as a sub) with bluetooth. You really don’t have to have software…just use Pocket Excel. If you know how to use Excel with Visual Basic and Macros its not entirely difficult. We can probably hook you up with a sample sheet too. You make one simple sheet for the PDA, then you have a master sheet on a laptop that can gather all the files using bluetooth. The master sheet we had calculated averages, standard deviations, etc. It even had a automatic drafting list that helped us compile our draft lists. If you already have PDAs…using Excel is a free, reliable, and fairly easy way to do electronic scouting.
Yeah…if you want a Computerized Scouting system, we can most likely get you ours. The only requirement is that you have six PDAs with Bluetooth (unless you setup wifi) that have Pocket Excel on them and one “bluetoothed” laptop. This system would also work for laptops…really, anything with Excel on it.
It was also helpful to give information to our team almost instantly.
