Botball

Advisor - Ms. Hertel, Mr. Sanderson

The GBHS botball team participates in a yearly robotics competition with other teams from throughout the Baltimore Washington metropolitan area. The competition is sponsored by the Kiss Institute for Practical Robotics. The students use a Roomba and a custom robot, both utilizing the touchscreen CBC Controller, which serves as the brain of the robot (shown on the right).

Students program the robots using code they create themeselves.  Utilizing a large number of sensors, motors and servos, the students build the robots to accomplish predefined tasks for points. This year's board was three-dimensional, consisting of a peak that scored maximum points, and a slope that scored less, as well as a multiplier called "Botguy" which doubled or tripled your score, depending on position.

Accomplishments

First in 1999, they placed 2nd in the website portion of the regional competition.  A year later in 2000, they took 1st place in the same category.  Then during the spring of 2003, they placed 3rd overall in the Baltimore Washington metropolitan area.  The greatest achievement so far came over the summer of 2003 when GB Botball Team placed 2nd in the entire country at the national competition.  They also received a Judge's Choice award for the intercommunication between the robots. For the past decade, the Botball team has consistently placed in the top 10, ahead of many prestigious magnet and private schools.

Botball is perfect for anyone who plans on entering engineering or any type of computer programming after high school.