Botball
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Botball is an Americentric robotics competition for middle and high school students. It is run by the KISS Institute for Practical Robotics.
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[edit] Overview
The Botball Educational Robotics Program integrates science, technology, engineering, and math with robotics in order to keep students on the cutting edge of technology. Botball uses completely autonomous robots that rely on computer programming to start, stop, and maneuver on the game board. Each robot uses sensors to detect changes in light, sound, distance, and color. The robot’s actions are based on the feedback from the sensors combined with the computer programming written and implemented by the students in advance. The challenge which these robots are to complete changes yearly, however, some factors remain the same from year-to-year. These factors include the continued use of C as the programming language, Legos as the base for building, and GameBoys (or other such computers) as the "brain". The schedule of Botball also remains roughly the same each year being divided into three parts, the pre-conference season, the regional building and programming season and tournament, as well as the additional national building and programming season and tournament.
The official Botball season begins with a 2-day professional development workshop generally held near the beginning of the new year. However before this conference, there are multiple months, referred to as the pre-conference season. While the challenge for the current season is announced at the workshop, work can still be done beforehand. This work includes the forming of the team, the teaching of basic ideas to new team members, as well as work towards completing goals which can be anticipated as being a part of the challenge.
The conference is where educators and team leaders learn about current robotics technology and how to implement it into their classroom or community. Through the course of the workshop, participants receive all the information about the current Botball game and the reusable robotics kit and components... They even construct a working demo-bot!
The Building Period and Tournament
Following the workshop, students are given about seven weeks to design, build, program a team of mobile, autonomous robots and a website documenting their process. Participants compete against each other on a 4’ x 8’ playing field in a fast paced, non-destructive regional tournament. The robots are student built and programmed to maneuver on the game board without the need for remote control.
Botball events are currently held in 14 regions across the nation:
* Arkansas * Florida * Georgia * Greater DC area * Hawaii * Midwest * New England * New York/New Jersey * Northern California * Oklahoma * Pennsylvania/Ohio * Qatar * Southern California * Texas
Later, usually at the beginning of July, there is a national competition, where teams from any region can compete, no matter their score in Regionals. The National Conference on Educational Robotics (NCER) has various "breakout" sessions, and other activities. Click this link for information about the 2006 NCER: [1]
[edit] Why is the Game so Complex?
Like many of life’s challenges, the Botball Program presents an open-ended problem with a variety of solutions. The many different scoring methods offer teams challenges at different levels - requiring them to make decisions about strategy, design, and construction. This gives teams experience in evaluating options and working towards a solution.
A lot of teams find that keeping with the KISS philosophy of Keep It Simple Stupid is often the best solution for a complex problem.
[edit] Where is the Driver?
There is no driver! Botball robots are completely autonomous and rely on their computer programming to start, stop, and maneuver on the game board. Each robot uses sensors to detect changes in light, sound, distance, and color. The robot’s actions are based on the feedback from the sensors combined with the computer programming written and implemented by the students in advance.
[edit] Why Robots?
In order for students to apply the subjects they learn in school, they must be able to use those subjects in a way that is meaningful. By designing, building, programming, and documenting robots, students use science, engineering, technology, math, and writing skills in a hands-on project that reinforces their learning.
[edit] 2005 competition
In 2005, the Botball challenge was to design bots that would collect and sort garbage, and retrieve an orange ball, and the Botguy toy from its perch in the center of the playing field. Each orange ball (there was one on each side of the board) was worth 10 points for getting it on the player's side, and an additional 20 points for placing it in the correct location. Botguy was worth 50 points when placed correctly. Among the trash items, the bottles were worth 10 points each if placed in the "recycling bin" container, and the trash was worth 5 points if placed in the trash container.
The competition also included a research and design website challenge that was judged several months before the competition. In 2005, the research challenge was won by Punahou School. The overall competition was divided into seeding rounds, documentation website competition, and double-elimination head-to-head rounds. Norman High School of Norman, Oklahoma took first place at the national competition at the University of North Florida.
In 2005, the first ever Botball to be held outside of the United States took place in Doha, Qatar. Five schools competed and the event was won by Qatar Academy led by Md Rezwan Al Islam, who is currently a Computer Science student in Carnegie Mellon University Qatar. The tournament was hosted by Carnegie Mellon University, held at the Qatar Foundation, and was overseen by several representatives of the NASA robotics division.
[edit] 2006 competition
Beginning with the 2006 season, Botball will use two Xport Botball Controllers instead of Handyboard or RCX processors. The sides of the board are split into three sections - red, green, and gold. These are for sorting tribbles, represented by small fuzzy balls. The tribbles are spread throughout the board, with nine on each side. Six are located on the outside edge, and three are inside a PVC tube. There is a pendulum in the center with two platforms. One holds a green, yellow, and orange poof ball on each end, and the other contains Botguy and six tribbles. Each tribble is worth one point in your black scoring area or in the incorrect colored sections in the back. They are worth two points in the correct colored sections. Each poof ball is worth 6 points in their correct sections (orange is considered red), and 3 points in the incorrect zones and the black zone. Botguy is worth 4 points in the red zone, three points in the black zone, and 2 anywhere else on your side. Southwest Covenant High School won the 2006 national double elimination tournament in the final round against Norman High School, though Norman won overall (which is suitable and unsurprising, considering it was in Norman, OK, the home of the University of Oklahoma). The final round was exciting for most of the crowd, as it ended with the Southwest Covenant robot inches from the ground (See video here: [2] Or read about it here:[3])
[edit] Botguy
Botguy is the mascot for Botball. He is also a plush toy (used in the 2005-2006 games). He is also used for demos of the setup of games in red and blue.
[edit] National Conference
The learning doesn’t end after the regional tournaments. Each year students, teachers, robotics enthusiasts, and professionals from across the country gather for the annual National Conference on Educational Robotics. Teachers and students lead the way in sharing ideas from curriculum integration to technical aspects of robotics by presenting papers during breakout sessions.
Highlights of the conference include nationally recognized professionals from organizations such as NASA and the Naval Research Laboratory giving fascinating presentations on their topics of expertise. Of course the most anticipated events are the National Botball Tournament, the Beyond Botball Tournament, and the Autonomous Robotics Showcase.
[edit] Beyond Botball
Beyond Botball is a high-energy game designed for any robot enthusiast who has finished high school or its equivalent. College students, hobbyists, engineers, teachers, etc are all invited to compete. The game is played on a 4’ x 8’ board. Your robot competes by using robot design and strategy to move objects into scoring position in a challenging robot face-off. Following robot guidelines, Beyond Botball participants build robots using any building materials, processors, and sensors they feel serve the objective of the game. The game rules and guidelines can be downloaded from Botball.org and the competition will take place at the 2006 National Conference on Educational Robotics in Norman, OK on July 7-10.
