Slashdot Mirror

Seconding the Lego Mindstorm approach.
This is what got me into programming when I was a freshman in high school.
Our awesome science teacher got me and a group of my friends involved in Botball.

We use the Handyboard http://handyboard.com/ which is kinda old-tech with a Motorola 68HC11, but is very beginner friendly. There is a free C compiler available http://www.botball.org/educational-resources/ic.ph p that is also very easy to use. With the expansion board there are many interfaces: analog inputs, digital in/out, sonar, motor drivers, servos, LCD screen.

On the one hand, it sounds like this mug would probably break if dropped from waist height, since there wouldn't be time for it to right itself. Also, even if it could, it would only work once, since the "Holy Hand Grenade" portion at the bottom would disappear. So this design is, in practice, completely worthless.

On the other hand, I have to appreciate the creation of a contest entry designed to satisfy the verbatim rules of the contest, as my buddy and I are responsible for at least a page of prohibitions in the Botball rules (although I hear some of the things we did are once again legal), so I can't really say I don't appreciate entries like this.

Back on the first hand, it seems ridiculous that the second-place team gets a full-page article which only passingly mentions the first place team and doesn't describe the properties of their entry or how high it was able to survive falling from. If I was on the UMR team, I'd be pretty upset right now.

(And no, I'm not a UMR student/alum)

The CNN article implies that this competition was "invented" by Kaman...Botball is a much more challenging competition, has been around for a number of years, enjoys NASA sponsorship, and makes use of multi-controller robots (including the incredibly versatile, open-source Handy Board controller). Plus, Botball is open to high-school students as well as middle school.

KISS and BEST are two other nationally-recognized robotics programs. While KISS uses Legos, don't be fooled -- you have two embedded systems to work with (Lego's RCX and the MIT-developed Handy Board microcontroller), and the designs get pretty outrageous. BEST has students building robots from scratch.

You should sponser a KIPR Botball Team. I am in college now, but in high school we competed in the KISS Institute for Practical Robitics regional and national competitions. The robots were made of legos and programmed in a variation of C. The bots had to be totally autonomous, but also had to carry out some very complex functions, usually involving ping-pong balls. Here is the link to KIPR Botball:
http://www.botball.org/

There are, however, some. I don't think that a robotics competition is a good idea, however. I don't know about most schools, but at mine there are not a lot of people interested in robotics. Besides, it would take a lot of work, and a lot of the most brilliant people are inherently lazy.

I don't think that's completely true. To a lot of people programming is very abstract, and they don't really see the benefits. Something like BotBall (http://www.botball.org/) will show them what they can do when they learn a language and will give them reward for the work they put in. Once they learn some basic programming skills they can have their robot running around in some cool repeated patterns (figure eights, squares). After that they can even program in things like object avoidance or tracking.

Then you can have those kids give a fair of their robot demonstrate its ability of a botball board. Not only with stimulate interest in computer science it will stimulate interest in Engineering.

Disclaimer: I did and very much enjoyed BotBall during the Junior and Senior years of high school. Its why I am now majoring in Engineering.

I think that the idea of robots is useful, even with what we have today. There have been robots that can mow the lawn for you, that can vacuum for you, and things along that line.

Things like Botball (kipr.org) really help to stimulate the idea of thinking about autonomous systems, and these are high school and sometimes middle school kids working on these projects. Sure, the contests that they run are really just getting the robots to move balls into cages and such, but the underlying point is a big deal. The future for robotics lies in autonomy, and it is a big problem.

It's rather difficult to get a system robust enough to last in an enviornment that you can only protect for as much as you predict (unless you plan on being able to "teach" the robot).

Maybe right now it seems like everything is just "ingenious", but there are some gems among it, and you just need to be a little more patient, the practical applications are the only ones that stick around in the end. Wait another 10 years, then see where we are.

For the HS crowd, there's Botball, which had it's DC area competition this weekend at UMCP, sponsored by the K.I.S.S. Institute for Practical Robotics. KIPR also puts together neat kits if you're looking for something to play with (a word of advice, Interactive-C blows and it's type checking system is flakey at best).

There's also Trinity Colleges's Autonomous Robotics Firefighting Contest which has a league for just about anybody. Qualifying alone is an impressive feat.

Also, if you're interested in the simulation league, you may be interested in checking out this paper which was written by one of the profs in my department.

</karmawhoring>

I am a teacher in a public Middle school in Carrollton, TX. I started a robotics club this year in order teach students robotics design, programming, teamwork and other skills. We use Lego Mindstorms and Handyboards in our club and program them in C, specifically Interactive C and Not Quite C (NQC). We also have one system running Linux as both IC and NQC are available for Linux.

My administration is very supportive of the club, providing money and other suppport through the year. The main difficulties in the club was raising money for the equipment and to pay the fee for the Botball competition we entered.

I applied for a grant with our local Educational Foundation and received $1,000 to fund the initital purchase of equipment. Your school district probably has an educational foundation that provides grants to teachers and students. Find a willing faculty member to sponsor your club and help you find funding and support.

Before I received that grant I began teaching the students C using a free Windows compiler I found on the net. It was perfect as it allowed the students to write Windows console applications without worrying about the code over head of a real Windows application. You can find the Bloodshed complier here

After we got our initial equipment I searched the net for grants available to public school teachers to fund technology applications. I applied for an $8,500 grant from The Verizon Foundation. This money will be used to pay our Botball entry fees for next year, and buy more advanced equipment for the students returning next year. I have had so much interest in the robotics club that I will probably have three clubs next year.

Yes.
Botball is a nation-wide NASA-sponsered high-school robotics contest, using legos, Handyboards, and Mindstorms. All programming is in C. Check it out.

On the topic of high school robotics...

I was involved in a high school robotics competition called Botball, organized by the KISS Institute for Practical Robotics. This program involved constructing autonomous robots out of Lego Technic parts, using Interactive C to write programs to control them.

The controller used was MIT's Handyboard, and the Botball game involved collecting ping pong balls and other such items to be depostited in a goal to score points (with various complexities coming into play). One part of the competition was head-to-head; two teams' robots then battled it out to see who could score more points.

The Botball program offers high school students exposure to engineering and software development concepts, as well as problem solving with specific goals and deadlines, all in a team setting. With competition at the regional and national levels, the program is challenging and rewarding for students. And it's a lot of fun too.

Coming out of the MIT Lego competitions, Botball robots are autonomous. To build one you have to understand not only mechanical engineering but basic control systems, autonomy, sensors and sensor fusion, and also how all these things work together. Botball teams also compete directly against each other, so you have to consider how your robot will find solutions despite the other robot's actions. Lastly, Botball is inexpensive: you don't have to be a private school :-) in order to compete.