Educational Robotics Program
 

Research and Design Website Challenge

2004 National Botball
Research & Design Website Challenge:
Assistive Robotics

 

Motivation

Thousands of years ago, humans discovered that if they leaned on a stick, they could walk more easily over certain kinds of terrain, and that people who had been injured might be able to walk when otherwise they could not walk at all. That was the origin of assistive technology. Since that time, many other inventions and discoveries have been made. The Etruscans skillfully designed false teeth out of ivory and bone, secured by gold bridgework, as early as 700 B.C. [1]. Over 700 years ago, 13th century Italians started using eyeglasses for people who had difficulty seeing [2]. About four hundred years ago, Phillip II of Spain was beyond the help of a cane, and motivated the invention of the wheelchair [3]. The first electronic hearing aid for people with hearing loss was invented in 1934 [4]. In 1976, blind people were able to hear books, letters and papers without requiring braille versions by using the Kurzweil Reading Machine [5]. Very recently, a new high-tech wheelchair, the iBot, became available which can balance on two wheels, giving users a quicker and easier way to be elevated to a standing height than was commonly available before [6]. Yet despite these inventions, millions of people with disabilities, from all around the world, remain bedridden and totally dependent on others to have any interaction with the outside world.

Can robots help? Are robots a more economical or otherwise preferable alternative to human assistants? Can robot technology be used to restore capabilities lost through accident, disease, or genetics? Can robotic prosthetics be integrated into the human body? Can existing prosthetics be made smarter, more capable, or easier to use through robotic augmentation?

Your Challenge

Your assignment is to:

  • Describe the current state of assistive robotics or assistive technology for a specific disability or related set of disabilities
  • Tell us about the future direction of this technology
  • Tell us what has to be done to get it there
  • Give us your ideas and designs for creating assistive robotics for a specific disability

Your report should be in the form of a web page that is hosted on your team's research page site. Your report should include sections that address the four points of the assignment. Your report must also include a bibliography. Reports without a bibliography will not be reviewed. If your references are to websites, you should include the URL. Other sources may also be used (e.g., books and journals) however a complete bibliographic citation for the source must be included in your bibliography. Hint, look at the bibliographies of your sources to find possible other sources to refer to.

Format

Your report can include graphics (flash, jpg, or gif files), small videos (flash, quicktime or mpg), and audio (flash or mp3). When printed, your report should not exceed six pages of text (not including bibliography or graphics) -- any amount past that will be ignored by the judges. Judges will use a variety of computers and browsers -- do not use anything in your web page that can only be viewed using a specific operating system or browser. If you are unsure whether or not your page is compatible, email us with a subject line: "Web contest check" and let us know: your team number, what operating system and internet browsers you have already checked, what specifically you want us to check (e.g., does this link work? or can you see that figure? or do you hear the theme to Rocky when the page comes up?). See additional information about website design and bibliography here.

Judging

Your website will be frozen at 2pm CST on 1/15/04. Web sites will be judged by a committee of experts in assistive technology and robotics. Judging will be based on:

  • 50% on your research and description of the selected class of disability, current state of assistive robotics in this area, and your bibliography
  • 10% on your analysis of the technical or other problems that are keeping this technology stalled
  • 25% on your ideas of how to fix assistive robotics in this area or new ideas on how robotics can be used to help people with these disabilities
  • 15% on the presentation of your web page (how good it looks, use of graphics, layout, etc).

Awards

This is a national competition divided into a middle school and high school division . Winners will be announced on the Botball website before the first regional tournament. The winners will be given their awards at their regional tournament award ceremony.

First, second, and third place trophies will be awarded along with a number of honorable mention awards. The first place team in each division will be given a $1000 travel grant to the National Conference on Educational Robotics to be held in July 2004. The second place prize in each division will be a $500 travel grant and the third place prize in each division will be a $250 travel grant. Winners of honorable mention awards will each receive two free registrations for the National Conference on Educational Robotics.

Bibliography:

  1. http://www.carabelli.com/dental/dhistory.htm
  2. http://chemical.kao.co.jp/e/ProductInformation/catalog/Cleanthrough(e)/plasticlens02.htm
  3. http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blwheelchair.htm
  4. http://www.fishbeinhearingaids.com/hearing_aid_history.htm
  5. http://www.kurzweiltech.com/techfirsts/readingmachine.htm
  6. http://www.indetech.com/ibot/

General Guidelines:

  1. Only Botball teams registered for the 2004 Botball season prior to January 15, 2004 are eligible to participate.
  2. Each registered team may submit one entry.
  3. Participation in the Website R&D Challenge is voluntary, and will not effect a team's standing in any other portion of the Botball program.
  4. All entries must be posted on KISS Institute's team web server by 2:00pm CST on 1/15/04.
  5. Files may be uploaded starting 10/1/03.  It is the team's responsibility to make sure their files are uploaded in time and that the website appears as intended when viewed by a browser.  Networks occasionally go down, and we expect heavy network traffic in the few days proceeding 1/15, so teams are strongly encouraged to upload their files early. Teams will be able to overwrite early versions of their web site -- files can be updated whenever the team desires up until the 1/15 deadline.
  6. The team websites will only be viewable by the team and by KISS Institute staff up until the 1/15 deadline.
  7. Judging will begin on 1/16.
  8. All submitted websites will become publicly accessible on or shortly after 1/16/04.

Website Viewing Requirements:

  1. Websites must be viewable using Netscape 7 or higher and IE 5 or higher (java enabled) browsers, and should not contain any operating system-dependent portions.  Do not include graphics or special features that operate only with the Windows or only with the Mac operating systems.  Videos that use the Quicktime or real-media viewers are fine since plugins for all operating systems are available; BMP or PICT graphics should not be used since they are operating system specific (use GIF or JPG instead).
  2. Browser plugins (e.g., Flash) are allowed, but you should include a link on the front of your website (that does not require the plugin to view) that links the viewer to a site for downloading the appropriate plugins.
  3.  All pathnames in your website should follow the HTML standard format and use forward slashes "/" to separate directories.  Paths that include backslashes "\" will not be viewable by many of the judges. 

Website Format Requirements:

  1. Websites must include the team's Botball team number clearly visible on the entry screen of their website.
  2. Your website should have all of its critical information within the equivalent of six printed pages.  Judges will be instructed to judge only that far into the website, considering anything after that point as supplementary "appendix" material.  Teams are welcome to have websites as long, thorough and complete as they wish, and there is no penalty for a large website, but anything beyond the first six pages will not be judged.  
  3. Your website should contain a table of contents that points to the various sections of content and has a link to your bibliography.  The table of contents may be implemented any way the team desires (e.g., a list of hyperlinks at the beginning, a separate frame, drop down menus, a list at the bottom of each page, etc.) but its ease of use will affect your team's score.

Website Bibliographic Rules:

  1. Your website must contain original content created by the students on the website team. (These need not be the same students who build and program the robots.)
  2. Your website should be considered a research paper.  You must properly acknowledge the creators of work on which your website material is based. 
    • Material copied from other sources must be contained in double quotes and immediately followed with a hyperlink, or bibliographic reference to the source material at the conclusion of the quote.
    • Material that is substantially drawn from a single source (i.e., paraphrased) should be followed by a hyperlink, or bibliographic reference to the source material.
    • Sources used to supply facts or ideas that are used in your content should be acknowledged through a hyperlink, or bibliographic reference to the source material.
    • Graphics, videos and pictures not created by the website team should be immediately followed by a hyperlink, or bibliographic reference to the source of the material.
    • All sources used in the creation of your website (including those already referenced in the text) should be included in a bibliography page on your website. 
  3. A link to your bibliography must appear on your website index.
  4. The bibliography does not count against the judging page limit (do not skimp on the bibliography).
  5. Any website not containing a bibliography or containing non-original material that is not properly attributed, will be disqualified from the contest.