Botball Orientation Tips from Teachers
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from David Askey, Physics Teacher Norman High School, Norman, OK * Pick two students whose #1 job is to build and maintain the Botball tournament course. This is a very important job since their ability to be extremely accurate may make the difference between your robot missing the ping pong ball by 1/2 inch or not quite getting over a PVC pipe . * If the robot makes turns and lifts arms, etc. with time as the determining factor, you are running the risk of battery fatigue. For example, if you tell the robot to move forward for 2.5 seconds, then turn left, a newly charged battery will move you to point A in 2.5 seconds, but a lower charged battery will move the robot to a point 1 inch behind point A in 2.5 seconds. Timing is dangerous and I discourage it. Encoders that count the number of turns of a wheel or gear seem to be the most accurate. * Keep reminding the students that the seeding round is different than the contest. Have a different strategy for the seeding rounds than for the bot-to-bot competition. Seeding rounds are all offense, you must think of defense as well during the competition rounds. Seeding rounds are in the morning, competition in the afternoon. Develop two robots for the seeding and then two altered robots for the competition. You will have your lunch time to switch modes. * Have a student keep a print out of the latest IC computer program that is heavily commented. The best programmers will not want to comment the program out, but insist or the team and you will have a hard time following their logic. Keep this print out posted. * Make each team member responsible for knowing the rules of the tournament. In fact, give them an exam over the rules after they have had about a week to read them over. Their ideas about what the robot should be able to do must stem from a thorough understanding of the boundaries and overall goals. * Remember KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid), the more the robot can do, the more that can (and usually will) go wrong on competition day. The winners strategy and building design always seem like such simple ideas. Simple, but brilliant. Do you have tips you'd like to share? Send your ideas to mcorey@kipr.org. |
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