Botball

Botball is an educational robotics program that focuses on engaging middle and high school aged students in team-oriented robotics competitions. Thousands of children and young adults participate in the Botball program. It has been active since 1998 and features a robotics curriculum which focuses on designing, building and programming a pair of autonomous robots. Teams use a standardized kit of materials, document the process and then compete in a tournament in which the challenges change annually. All materials in the kits are exactly the same for every team around the world, so there is no unfair advantages. Botball teams are mostly based in the US with over 300 teams and local tournaments in more than a dozen regions. In recent years it also holds an annual Global Conference on Educational Robotics (GCER), with an international tournament that attracts teams all over the country as well as from Austria, China, Uganda, Poland, Qatar, Kuwait, and Egypt.

Botball’s mantra is that “Today’s Botball kids are tomorrow’s scientists and engineers.” The program is managed by the non-profit KISS Institute for Practical Robotics (KISS stands for the engineering acronym: Keep It Simple Stupid) whose vision is to use robotics “to stimulate and engage students in exploring their potential in engineering, science and math.” The goal of Botball and KISS to educate the workforce of the future and to engage students in science, technology, engineering and math. This objective is shared by the NASA Robotics Alliance Project (RAP) which partners with Botball and other robotics education programs. NASA RAP’s mission is “to enable the implementation of future robotic space exploration missions.” NASA sponsors Botball through providing technical mentors and other resources. It also hosts an online free course in Programming robots in C featuring a controller that was used in Botball NASA RAP sees Botball as an opportunity to reach out to its future workforce and provide relevant hands-on experience and necessary skills to potential future NASA scientists.

Botball is known for the sophistication and complexity of its robotic competitions. What differentiates Botball from other student robotics programs is that the robots are autonomous; therefore, they are not directed by remote control. Students use computer science to program the robots to recognize challenges and then attempt the objectives of the competition. The robots contain several types of sensors and also two cameras for their computer vision systems.Robot Magazine, highlighted in an article the gameplay and systems, “Every year the game offers different challenges at varying levels of difficulty, so participants can focus on harder goals, or find simpler solutions, based on their abilities… Botball uses the CBC2, a powerful robot controller that easily interfaces with a large number of sensors and effectors and features an ARM 9-based CPU/Vision processor running LINUX, an ARM 7-based DAQ/Motor control system, and integrated display and touch screens that are easy to use. The CBC2 uses the KISS-C Integrated Development Environment and its libraries, especially designed to be friendly to users with vastly different programming experience. Both the CBC2 and KISS-C were developed by KISS Institute and are used in university research programs as well as the Botball Program.”

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