Once the game is released and the necessary changes have been made so that it is compatible with this years game, we (The CircuitRunners Technical Team) will work to make a distributional version that teams could use at their own regionals.
The idea is to have some sort of nation wide scouting system. However, it requires allot of man power to run it during the competition so more than one team may be required to run it. So some smaller teams or teams in general my opt to work together. Also technology resources are needed (laptops or some form of computeing and preforably a Win XP OS). The info would have to be accessible to all teams at the regional (at least via WiFi and a spare computer station). Lastly the data base files need to be sent back to us for posting on scoutingdb.circuitrunners.com for all to see.
Currently we will be attending. The Peachtree Regional and the Purdue Regional. We will NOT be at VCU b/c Peachtree and VCU happen on the same weekend and Peachtree is our home regional.
So is anyone / anyteam interested in this?
Stefan P - The CircuitRunners Technical Team Leader
Stats for the most part depend on the game. But info is collected in two stages. First you have team / robot info. You get this on the pratice day. It basicley in volves stuff like robot weight, what its designed to do, if it modular, its drive system, how many regionals that have been to before this one, etc. Next you have match info. Where you have one person per robot getting info and recording it down info such as time it takes to do a task, accuracy, if it was disabled, problems completeing tasks, or if it did really well at something.
And what it ends up being is what is on scoutingdb.circuitrunners.com.
On the side clcik teams, then type 1002 and Select Champs.
To make this system more accessable you might want to consider making it compatible with Linux and Unix based systems. They aren’t as uncommon as some people think and you can always port a linux app over to Windows via Cygwin or MSFU (MS services for Unix). Or consider making it web based or if you really want a standalone app then consider writing it in an easily portable language and making it open source.
IT IS ENTIRELY web based and will run on any system / server that has MySQL, Apache, and PHP installed… I jus run it at competions on a windows based system since that is all I use. However, if someone is acquainted enough with linux they shouldn’t have any problem getting it to run. Currently it is running on a linux server (Sevaa.com Hosting).
This scouting system is one of the most comprehensive ones that I have seen so far. It has helped the Circuitrunners get to the quarterfinals at VCU and win the Peachtree regional. One of the big advantages is that you get a summary of vital team information on the printouts. You can see how many times a robot has accomplished a specific task, how many times it tipped over, how many matches they have won, their average score, etc all on one sheet. You therefore not only have a list of what the robot is supposedly able to do, you also have the data showing how many times it has done those things. If data is collected at all regionals it would make for an extremely useful database of information on all team’s performances and help all at Championships a great deal. I’ve helped develop this database and have used it, feel free to ask any questions and Stefan and I will try to answer to the best of our ability.
I’m willing to help if you need someone to setup a kiosk at VCU, as it really helped us out last year. The team currently has a spare PIII lying around that I could be linux on in a flash, but is currently running Win98 (don’t ask).
Sounds good, another team from VCU was / is also interested in collecting robot info during practice with their imac laptops. However, their contact is currently on vacation so more exact details on that later… Also people will be needed to collect the data and input the data (match wise) as well as help people get to it.
