User Guide: FTA

GMS supports the following features for FTAs:

• FTAs can record notes for each robot for each match. 
• View summaries of recorded notes and analyze them.
• Highlight teams of interest by marking them.
• Customizable rubrics for quick note taking.
• Standalone or server-integrated operation.
• Construct or modify match schedules.

Home Screen

The Pit Map and Team List buttons display all the teams participating at the event.  FTA Notes associated with each team can then be displayed.  The Match Notes button displays notes that are related to the match and not to any team.  Examples of Match Notes are: reasons for match delays, field equipment failures, etc.

This home screen will be displayed only if a schedule is available for the current match phase.  If there is no schedule, then either a Pit Map or Team list will be displayed.

The team alliances in the selected match are displayed at the bottom of the home page.  Clicking on a team leads to the Team Page which then leads to the page where the notes can be viewed.  Long clicking on the team allows you to "Mark" the team and to directly add to or view their notes.  Marked teams are highlighted in orange.

The Previous and Next buttons allow selection of previous or next match.  The selected match number is displayed at the top of the screen.  The teams displayed correspond to the selected match.

The Current button selects the current match on the field.  Touching it will enable Auto Advance.  In Online mode, this allows the GMS server to automatically advance the screen to the next match when the current match completes.  The button will be green when Auto Advance is enabled. 

The "Start Observing" button allows the FTA to record notes on the selected match.  This button will be marked "Review" when the match selected is not the current one.

Marking teams

Teams can be marked (and unmarked) by long pressing on the team number on any screen.  Marked teams are highlighted in orange on all screens.  This serves as a reminder to the FTA that something is noteworthy about that team.

Match Schedules

The event schedule are typically downloaded.   When it is not available, it can be constructed or modified on the tablet.  This is useful during Practice matches or when a match is replayed.  On the Home page, "Add Match" inserts a match after the current event.  "Edit match" allows information about the current match to be modified.  "Delete Match" allows the current match to be deleted.  While adding a match to the schedule, construct the alliance by touching the team's station (for example Red 2, or Blue 1) before selecting the team.

You can also add matches by long pressing on the header of the Team List screen.  This is useful when the Home page is not displayed, because there is no schedule.

Recording Match Notes

The screenshot above shows the recording screen.  There is a 'Free form' text area and a Checklist of frequently occurring issues.  The checklist is customized for FTAs.  However, the Event FTAs can easily change it to suit their preferences for each event.  This must be done at the start of the event before any comments have been entered.

Swipe the screen left or right to add comments on other teams in the match.  The right most page allows comments to be added regarding the match itself (independent of any team.)  It is marked with the match number.

Touching the Team number (or match number) at the top of the page displays a summary of all comments for that team.  Long pressing the team number allows you to "Mark" or "Unmark" the team.

Touching "Match Notes" in the home page displays the summary of team independent match comments (as mentioned earlier.)

If the tablet is large enough, up to 4 teams can be simultaneously displayed on the screen, as depicted above.  Other teams can be made visible by swiping left or right. Note that multiple teams will be displayed only when the tablet is in the landscape configuration. The free form text area can also be filled using voice to text conversion. 

Comments will be shared with other FTAs at the event via the laptop server.  They are not shared with other roles.

The Match page is at the far right.

In GMS, the terms 'Team Notes' and 'Match Notes' refer to two separate functions.  'Match Notes' are text and checklists associated with a specific team in the match or the match itself.  'Team Notes' are pictures, videos and drawings associated with a team.

Match Notes Summary

Comments are displayed organized by team, as shown in the screenshot above.  In the free form section, the match number and time will be displayed for each note, as will the name of the FTA that added the comment.

Checklist issues are be summarized and shown below the free form comments.  The screenshot above shows the frequency of issues for the team as compared to all other teams. 

If the "Expert / Terse" setting is on (see Settings), then issues which have not been checked off in any match will be suppressed; only those issues with at least one choice selected will be displayed.

Analysis

Lastly, FTAs can also see how a particular issue affects all teams, as shown below.  Touching an issue in the Summary page displays the following analysis.

The analysis page shows how each team fared on the selected issue in all matches.

FMS Mode

The tablet can be disconnected from the GMS WiFi network and connected to the FMS WiFi network.  The GMS server will become inaccessible.  All notes and updates will be saved on the tablets until connection is restored to the GMS server.  The FTA can periodically connect to the GMS network to sync notes and inspection states.

A red icon will appear in to top left corner to indicate connection loss.  This will automatically disappear when the connection is restored and all pending messages are sent.  The tablet periodically plays an annoying alert tone and vibrates while connection is lost.  This can be suppressed by the setting Alerts : Vibrate and Toast.

Other

FTAs can share Team Inspection States and Notes with RIs.  They can mark a team for re-checks and add notes, but cannot change team inspection checklists or Inspection State.  FTA Notes will be shared with Inspectors. 

On the GMS server, the FTA checklist is in a text file called 'ftaRubrics.txt' in the event folder.  This file can be customized before the start of the event.  In the file, items before the Match section (identified by " <<<Match>>> ") are for teams.  Items in the match section show up in the team-independent Match page.

FTAs can search comments for specific words.  For example, searching for 'smoke' will list the teams and matches where a robot emitted smoke.  Touching each listed item leads to the team comments page shown earlier.

Data on selected issues can be posted to the Internet for access via the Team App.  The selection will be configurable.

FTAs can advance the Match Counter and set the Match Completion time.  This is useful when the tablet is not synced with the GMS server.

FTAs will also have access to the following common functions:

- Pit Map

- Notes search

- Team details & schedules

- Messaging (Voice and Text) (if synced)

To see a demo, login using demo / demo / FTA, and press Offline.  Note: In Demo mode, Match Observer rubrics are displayed instead of FTA rubrics.  FTA and Match Observer functionalities are similar, except for the rubrics and that the FTAs can access Team Inspection State information.

(c) 2014 Cue