New FIRST LEGO League Season has begun

Wow - it is hard to believe that the 2010 Body Forward™ Challenge has already begun. The Microbots signed up again this year and we are wondering how best to participate. Look for articles in BrickJournal magazine as we try to help teams with some of the issues that they face.

Issue 11 of BrickJournal starts our discussion of batteries. In part 1, we look at battery characteristics. In part 2 (slated for issue 12), we look at voltage and its effect on the robot.

We wish all of the teams who are participating in FLL the best of luck this year. We have heard that the challenge is really tough. Good luck to all!

The Microbots’ Robot Design

Our robot design is built to traverse the uneven terrain found on the moon. The design in LEGO Digital designer shows the brick layout but several parts such as the wheels are not available in LDD. This design was selected for the maneuverability on the bumpy LEGO surface.

 

 
The robot has three sensors and a camera. On the right side is a compass sensor that allows more precise accuracy on turns. On the left side is a touch sensor to start the robot. There is a light sensor near the left wheel to allow the robot to understand when it has reached the Peak of Eternal Light.
 

The arm in front allows the robot to pick up the various items that it will be collecting along the way.

Zach

Tad
Gala

Microbots MoonBots Video Version 2.0

Ta-da!

We know it won't count with the judges, but it's fun watching MoonBots videos, and we had some great ideas that we just didn't have time to put in our first video before the deadline! So here is Microbots MoonBots video essay version 2.0!



Hope you like it!

Go MoonBots!

Gala

BrickJournal Issue 10

A new BrickJournal magazine comes out every two months with a Mastering FIRST LEGO League article. We wrote an article in this issue that discusses the various ways to turn the robot. This may sound easy but there are many different and interesting ways to turn the robot. Enjoy pictures of the various FLL teams that are included bimonthly in our column.

Who knows, maybe we will do an article on the MoonBots challenge.

Our Robot Design

Our robot design is unique in many ways. It can easily traverse the ridge while maintaining its alignment. It can pick up the elements, find its way to the various challenges, and use changes in the color of the terrain to position itself, while filming the whole thing. We put a quick video on our share which shows us testing it using bluetooth. We can't wait to get the obstacles and make it autonomous.

The MoonBots Challenge

Phase I of the the MoonBots Challenge is finished and the theme of our research presentation was "A Cloud on the Moon". The following cover appears at the end of our video and shows a Microbot planting the Google flag on the moon. The video was shot at our FRC team HQ in Regency Park, a corporate office building in Cary, NC.

Our logo is the three Microbots that appears on the bottom of the magazine cover. The Microbots were built as LEGO structures and are standing on the grey plates that we used to test our robot design.

You can find many of the video pieces as well as the submitted video at http://microbotsmoonbotschallenge2010.shutterfly.com/ (look for  Moonbots Video v05.wmv).

Our submitted video was posted on YouTube on May 28th (http://fllmicrobots.blogspot.com/2010/05/microbots-post-moonbots-research-video.html).

Go Microbots!

You guys did an AWESOME job editing! I looked at some of the other MoonBots team videos, too, and they are a lot of fun to watch! There were a lot of great ideas, too, but I still like ours best!!!

I really like our awesome robot, too! Thank you Mr. Miller for letting us do this challenge, and giving us all the cool robot pieces and the awesome new program to edit our video! It was a lot of fun! You're awesome!

I hope we get to go to Phase 2!!!

Go Microbots!

Gala