Scouting 2011
In my absence from the team due to stupid things like “college” and “passing my classes”, I’ve been working on some things that Shaker may or may not use that could help the team out.
We’ve gone with KISS on our robot this year, as cliche as the term is, so why not extend that to scouting? Previously, we used an excellent Wii Remote based program for scouting. While it worked great, it wasn’t very easy to train people to use and it was a little less than easy to get data down to the pits for use by the strategists before matches. The software has ways to work around both things – mainly the ability to print prematch data out and simpler control methods – but I want to see if there’s a way things can be made simpler and less electronic.
So here’s what “I” came up with, the result of tons of causal research, conversation, and advice from people smarter than me. First: It’s all paper based. Data is inputted into a computer only for the Friday night pick list meeting. Paper is cheap, reliable, and intuitive. We’ll have a binder with sections for each team that includes scouting sheets from each match for easy organization and access. Forms are printed two per side on standard, three hole punched paper. Each team should only need about three full sheets of paper for data.
The forms are optimized to require taking as little data as possible. In this game, a lot of the “advanced” statistics you may want can be easily derived from a core set of general data. Rather than track a number of tubes scored on various positions of the rack and some other modifier for the right shapes in the right places, the scouting form just includes a 6×3 grid to copy the Rack onto. Rather than calculate minibot deploy and climb time, the form just asks scouts to read the arena clock when the minibot hits the top. Overall, only 5 points of data are asked of the scouts, which can later be derived into anything we could possibly need.
Here’s my rough draft scouting sheet and rough draft prematch form. Lemme know what you think!
