About Watchdogs
A scouting assignment system built for FRC teams that need balanced human-scout coverage, per-scout mobile pages, QR sharing, and stateless links.
How to Use Watchdogs
1
Enter an event code
Example: 2025mifer. Watchdogs downloads the qualification schedule from The Blue Alliance.
2
Set scout and observation constraints
Choose number of scouts, observations per team, spread, max consecutive matches, excluded teams, and schedule spread bounds.
3
Name your scouts
Scout names are saved in the URL so the whole setup stays shareable and stateless.
4
Compute assignments
Watchdogs spreads coverage across the event and builds per-scout assignment pages with QR codes.
About Page QR
Use this QR code on a pit display or handout so students and mentors can quickly open the About page.
QR…
/about
How the Assignment Algorithm Works
Watchdogs balances randomness with spread so teams are not all scouted early and scouts do not get overloaded.
A
Download and normalize the match schedule
Qualification matches are loaded from TBA, team appearances are indexed, and feasibility checks are run.
B
Choose spread-out observation targets
For each team, Watchdogs picks desired observation points across the full schedule using bucketed match positions and seed-based jitter.
C
Apply bounds and pacing
Early/late/span bounds and per-match pacing prevent all assignments from getting front-loaded.
D
Assign scouts match by match
The solver respects one-team-per-scout, spread gaps, and max consecutive limits while favoring urgent and desired observations.
E
Generate outputs for the team
You get assignments by match, coverage by team, per-scout schedules, mobile links, QR codes, and CSV export.
What Makes Watchdogs Useful
- It keeps the whole setup stateless and shareable through URL parameters.
- It gives every scout a clean personal schedule page for phone use.
- It reduces front-loaded scouting and improves late-event data quality.
- It was built to support real FRC event workflows.