Scouting is when teams observe the behaviors of a team’s robot throughout matches they compete in within an event. When scouting other teams, scouts look for how a robot performs certain actions during a match, the overall functionality of the team's robot, and how efficient the performance of drive teams are.
The most basic reason we scout is that data we receive from scouting assists us in alliance selections, where highly ranked teams select other teams to join their alliance and compete in playoff matches in hopes to exit the event as the finalist winner. The alliance captains, those who choose other robots to join their alliance, rely on scouting data to strategize which teams will complement their robot's abilities in a game. Cooperating well as a team is critical to playoff matches, as not doing so can cost an alliance many points in a match. Before a match, it's helpful for Drive Captains to know which teams they are competing against as well as who is on their alliance. Scouting gives Drive Captains that insight, and they use the data to strategize with other teams on their alliance to win the upcoming match.
A scouting app solves many problems found in traditional paper scouting methods. Most FRC teams use a certain, inefficient process to scout matches; while matches are playing, scouts write data onto paper by checking boxes or filling in numbers based on how a robot competed during the match. Afterward, the data is manually entered into a spreadsheet, tending to be disorganized and difficult to interpret. Because manually entering data into a spreadsheet takes up extra time, the process of strategizing for alliance selections is delayed. In addition, a disorderly spreadsheet makes tracking a team's progress throughout an event challenging. Through a scouting app, the process of manually entering data after matches is eliminated, which allows for the pre-alliance selection process to begin much earlier. The data is immediately uploaded to an organized, easy-to-follow spreadsheet, and multiple graphs are created that display a robot's progress during an event. These components allow for Drive Captains to analyze their opponents quickly.