Posted at 12:32 p.m., Tuesday, July 10, 2007
Robotics, Botball tournament at Blaisdell center today
Advertiser Staff
The National Conference on Educational Robotics and the International Botball and Beyond Botball Robot Tournaments are being held in Honolulu, beginning today through Friday, July 10-13.All robot tournament events are free and open to the general public.
The Lieutenant Governor of Hawai`i, James R. "Duke" Aiona, Jr., will be making opening remarks to kick off the International Botball Tournament's Seeding Rounds tomorrow, Wednesday, July 11. Aiona will begin speaking at 1:30 p.m., and the seeding rounds will begin shortly thereafter.
The Beyond Botball Double Elimination Rounds will be held on Thursday, July 12, from 3 to 5:30 p.m., and the International Botball Tournament Double Elimination rounds will be held on Friday, July 13, from 1:30 to 5:30 p.m.
All tournament events are being held at the Hawaii Convention Center, in Exhibit Hall 1.
Guest speakers from internationally recognized organizations such as NASA, iRobot, SPAWAR, Kagawa University, and the University of Hawaii have been invited to the conference. For more information, see: www.botball.org/season/2007/ncer/2007_national_conference.php
This year's International Botball Tournament is the largest ever, with 65 robot teams competing, including 20 teams from Hawai`i, 44 teams from the mainland, and 1 international team from Poland. There are currently 11 teams from across the United States and Japan registered to compete in Beyond Botball.
In this year's International Botball Tournament, each team is faced with a Hawaiian-themed game board and objectives. Robots will be scrambling to prepare their "island" from the impending destruction from a nearby rumbling "volcano."
Because Botball robots don't use remote control, each bot has been programmed by the students to harvest pineapples, compost leaves, place rooftops on houses, and clear away lava (game elements are made of small pompoms and pvc pipes). The human team members won't be able to assist the robots during the 90-second game. All bots must start, operate, and stop by themselves.
