The New FRCKrawler Scouting System

Competition Scouting
1

Hello CD,

There was quite a bit of buzz last season with teams using Android and iPad tablets to do their scouting. Many teams have created their own apps specifically for scouting. When coming up with our scouting plan last season, we decided switching to a tablet-based scouting system would be a great improvement over our paper and spreadsheet system. However, after looking around on the market for an app that would suit our needs, we decided that creating our own was the best route.

So, without further ado I present to you the FRCKrawler Scouting System. FRCKrawler is intended to be used with around 6 or 7 Android tablets, one for each scout. No Internet connection is needed during the competition. Each tablet syncs to a “master” tablet via Bluetooth, which spits out a searchable summary or Excel spreadsheet of all the data collected. It also supports scouting in the pits and pictures. FRCKrawler is also designed to be both incredibly customizable, and incredibly easy to use for the scouts themselves. Teams are able to define their own metrics (disc score, auto score, driver skill, wheel type, etc.) to scout by and also choose how the data for each metric is entered. Because teams aren’t tied down to only tracking what metrics the programmer thought would be useful, the app is able to be reused from year to year, and teams can track whatever they think is important. FRCKrawler also offers a user interface that is easy for scouts to use. Rather than entering data with just the keyboard and text fields, data can be entered with buttons, sliders, drop-down menus, and check boxes. Text fields are still an option for more qualitative data. The data from metrics can also be added together. So, data such as the total points a robot scored can be calculated without the scouts having to do any of the calculations themselves. FRCKrawler also lets teams create and save rank-able lists of robots that they think might be important or noteworthy. This makes it easy to keep track of your first or second picks, or robots that have broken down. Lists can then be easily referred to when it comes time to talk strategy or select alliances. Data can also be saved from competition to competition, and year to year. The database can also be backed up to a desktop computer or another Android device. Accidents do happen.
With this system last year, our team was an alliance captain and able to pick the winning alliances at two regionals. It was very effective at getting information to the drive team before matches, quickly finding data at nightly scouting meetings, and helping our captain and scouting leader during alliance selection.

FRCKrawler is available on the Google Play Store:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.team2052.frckrawler

Currently, there is no iPad version available.

It is advisable that teams download the app, play with it, and get it set up before a competition. It takes some time to set up the metrics, teams, and robots for a competition.

2

Any chance you guys will have this at MRI this setup weekend for other teams to check out? Obviously, purchasing a bunch of tablets for scouting is a big expenditure, but probably worth it if we like the scouting app!

3

So I’m trying to use the app on my gs3 and I can’t get to put in any of the data until I set up the host and I just want to try it on only one device. Is this possible or will I need at least 2 devices?

4

Jon,

We did not plan on using this at MRI because we have not shown this to all our new members yet. We have around 20 rookies and we have barely introduced the game and rules, so we thought it would be a little much to have them entering data about a game they don’t completely understand. This first one will be more of an introduction to scouting. I believe we were maybe going to try to do it at the Prior Lake Minne Mini regional though if you were going to that.

5

I’m sure I’ll be down at Prior Lake… I wasn’t even necessarily thinking about seeing it in use at MRI, but maybe just having a tablet or two on hand so we can sit off to the side and play with for a bit to see if we like it. The team’s had a good, workable spreadsheet for several years now that’s done us a lot of good, so we wouldn’t really want to take a risk on something we weren’t sure on!

6

The app is split into two main parts. The administrator part, and the scout part. The admin part is accessed by tapping the “Administer” button on the home screen, and the scout part is accessed by tapping the “Join” or “Continue” buttons. You can use the admin part with only one device, but to see the scout part you would need a second device. You can still enter pit and match data with the admin part. Just make a new game, event, team, robot, and add the robot to the event. You can give your game a few metrics too. Then go Games>Events>Match Data and you will be able to add match data. Similarly you can edit robots by going Teams>Robots>Edit Robot, or Games>Events>Robots. Hope that clears a few things up for you. I will be releasing a PDF about how to use FRCKrawler in much greater detail in the next month or so.