Scouting
From FIRSTwiki
Scouting, is the process of collecting information about the various robots that are competing at a particular regional or the Championship Event, and turning that information into something useful that can be used later for picking partners in finals. It can also be thought of as "Intelligence and Strategy". Scouting is a very important aspect of competition, and is vital both for game strategy.
Overview
While, at first glance, scouting appears to be easy, and is often overlooked by rookie teams (and a few veteran teams too), it is actually a quite a challenge in terms of information management. The organization required for mounting a scouting effort can be enormous. Collecting information on 40 or more robots, including their performance during practice and qualification matches, strategies that are used, strengths and weaknesses of the robot, special abilities, organizing it into something manageable, and then distributing the relevant information to the people who need it, when they need it, is quite a formidable challenge.
This is why it is so vitally important to do as much preparation for scouting as possible before the competition.
Methods of Scouting
There are many different scouting methods of scouting, all of which have their pros and cons. It's important to choose one of the many scouting methods so that there will be enough time for the team to prepare the information for competition.
It's also very helpful to other teams scouting if a team does such things as preparing a robot info sheet, updating their team's FIRST Wiki profile, updating their team's website frequently, or having someone qualified on the team regularly available to answer questions about the team's robot at competition.
With preparation, scouting can be an incredibly useful tool that can give a team the edge it needs to win a competion.
