As the unofficial head scout of team 121, last year I learned to stay out of the pits and in the stands. Teams can tell you all sorts of nonsense. But how do you know what they are telling you is true. The only way is to see them in action during practice. What I did was make forms for each team. On the form I had things like type of robot, speed, alliance pick, etc. This allows you to see and judge what a robot can and can’t do. Since there are four teams at a time, fill out 2 teams and have another team member fill out another 2 sheets. This can really make you feel like part of the team and helps when you get that top 8 seeding.
You should investigate WASH and GMCIA. These systems use Palm Pilots for scouting what teams do in a match, and are in their 2nd and 3rd year of development/existance. The ‘inventors’ are very experienced in scouting and you may find using their setup more efficient.
Check out http://www.wildstang.com/2001/wash/wash.htm
Also, www.soap108.com will have many stats and details of the scoring components of this year’s competition. We plan to cover every event this year, some of them, if not all, Live!.
KA-108 