In our homegrown version of battlebots, I present one of the most popular activities this summer at our Robotics Summer Camps, NXT Battlebots!
The rules are simple – the last robot standing and able to move under its own power wins. In the event more than one robot lives, the ref (me) decides which robot dominated for the round.
This battle is from my North Tampa group this week. I’ll have some more pics and video up in the next few days. Until then, enjoy!
According to RJMcMamara.com, if you are in possession of an NXT Intelligent Brick with a faulty display, LEGO Customer Service will now replace them at no charge.
Do you own an NXT ‘Intelligent Brick’ with a flickery or non-working display? Steven Canvin, LEGO’s Community Manager for LEGO MINDSTORMS, has asked us to pass on this message –
“Unfortunately, some of the NXT Intelligent Bricks manufactured in-between 2006 and early 2008, may have a faulty display, resulting in a flickering or non-working display.
“LEGO Corporate Management has decided that any NXT Intelligent Brick manufactured with this malfunction of the display will have an extended guarantee beyond the standard guarantee. The LEGO Group offers to replace NXT Intelligent Bricks with the above-mentioned faulty display.
“The NXT Intelligent Bricks would be found in:
- Retail set 8527 (version 1.0 and 1.1)
- LEGO Education set 9797
- Item 9841 NXT Intelligent Brick (or similar sold through LEGO Education distribution)
“If a user wants to have a NXT Intelligent Brick replaced based on this quality issue, please ask [them] to contact LEGO Consumer Service, contact information available on the web for your country. Please note that the display needs to be defect[ive].”
Steven has asked that if you think your NXT suffers from this problem, please check the battery first before contacting LEGO customer support, as similar issues are seen when the battery is running low on power. Only NXTs with a genuinely faulty display will be replaced.
Previously, this replacement policy was only available for bricks purchased through LEGO Education.
This is great news considering how prevalent reports of this defect have become. Apparently, there are a few surface mounted capacitors under the buttons that lose their solder connections over time as the buttons are pressed on the brick. Rough handling probably accelerates the demise of these displays. Until now, the only other remedy available to users out of the regular warranty was to reflow the solder on these capacitors.
Update #1: Realizing this is pretty short notice, I’m going to open a session just for kids ages 6 to 8 in Riverview. This will be a three hour camp running from June 27th to July 1st. Pricing is the same as the other camps. I’ve update the Camp Page with the registration details. I will need to have seven kids registered by June 24th to move forward. If the camp doesn’t fill up, full refunds will be given on June 25th. If you register and pay by check, I will hold the check until the camp is confirmed. If you pay online by credit card or Paypal, I will refund your payment in full in the manner paid. Email confirmations will be sent on June 25th or as soon as the camp reaches the minimum enrollment. I will cap enrollment for this camp at 16 campers.
We will be engaged in the Jr. FIRST LEGO League challenge for 2010, Body Forward where the kids will have the opportunity to explore the field of bioengineering, learn about systems in the human body, and then invent something to heal, repair, or enhance one of the systems. They will make models of their inventions using LEGO and will make a project board showing what they learned. We will conduct this activity for three of the five days. The remaining time will be spent engaging in traditional robotics activities with guidance from our staff. Since the Jr. FLL season officially ended on April 30th, we are offering this solely as an enrichment activity.
Update #2: We’ve added online registration links for our camps. You can now register and pay for the camps online. We’ll still need the registration forms because it contains important information and signatures, but you’ll be able to reserve your spot online right up to the day before camp starts.
Update #3: The afternoon session in North Tampa at Messiah Lutheran Church for the week of June 20-24 is now closed. We still have spots available in the morning session.
I approved the final shirt design yesterday for all of the camp shirts. The screen printer will be starting on them Monday so that I’ll have them for the first week of camps. Tell me what you think!
This being our first year hosting a summer camp program, I have to say the approach to the start of summer was very different from what I expected. Finding locations, setting up activities, constructing camp materials, advertising, organizing the camp shirts, finding camp counselors and “other related activities” proved to each have their own unique sets of challenges. Thankfully, now that we’re just over a week away, it has all come together nicely. I’m really looking forward to meeting all of the kids and having a great summer!
I’m very interested in learning more about what campers, both enrolled and prospective, think about what we’ve done so far. I setup a short nine question survey to help me understand what I can do to improve in a couple of key areas. If you enrolled in our camp program OR you even considered it, I would love to know what you think about what we offer. Please take two minutes and let us know.
Set your alerts for October, 15, 2011, the official grand opening day of LEGOLand Florida!
The park features seven themed play areas for all ages. Expected highlights include:
Yes, I am more than a little excited that we finally have a LEGOLand in Florida. I hope they can keep the character of the Florida themepark experience I remember from my many visits to Cypress Gardens.
Here’s a little video for you.
It rarely happens, but Amazon has the latest LEGO Mindstorms NXT 2.0 (8547) set
A great item to buy along with it is our Version 2 to Version 1 Retrograde Kit. It lets you build just about any model from books written for the original Retail NXT set.
05.13.11
Playa Vista, CA (May 9, 2011) ā The X PRIZE Foundation and the LEGO Group today announced MoonBots 2.0: A Google Lunar X PRIZE LEGOĀ® MINDSTORMSĀ® Challenge. This second annual contest will challenge teams of youth to design, program, and construct robots that perform simulated lunar missions similar to those required to win the $30 million Google Lunar X PRIZE, a private race to the Moon designed to enable commercial exploration of space while engaging the global public. To further this purpose, the X PRIZE Foundation and the LEGO Group have partnered with WIRED magazine and FIRST robotics to offer a competition that will excite students and their families about the Moon, robotics, and team building.
āIn the MoonBots 2.0 Challenge, students get to produce videos, gain computer programming skills, and learn the latest in technological advances at it relates to space exploration. It is important to inspire this generation with the Google Lunar X PRIZE and help kids understand that Moon exploration is still relevant and exciting,ā said Chanda Gonzales, Google Lunar X PRIZE Education Manager.
Teams will be asked to submit fun, scientific video clips that talk about space exploration. In addition to the video, each team will be asked to write a proposal explaining why their robot should be funded to go to the moon, similar to the proposals authored by actual Google Lunar X PRIZE teams.
From these submissions, a select group will be chosen as finalists and provided with free LEGO components to construct a large Moonscape that will serve as the competitionās āplaying field.ā Finalists will then design their robot using CAD software, program it, and demonstrate their robot to be judged. Finalist teams will be asked to complete a STEM outreach project to mentor kids to get excited about the MoonBots 2.0 Challenge, a requirement unique to this yearās contest.
For more than a decade, the LEGO MINDSTORMS robotics toolkits have given children of all ages the best of both the physical and virtual worlds, combining LEGO bricks with state-of-the-art hardware and easy-to-use programming software. LEGO MINDSTORMS empowers users to conceive, build, and program robotic inventions for both play and learning purposes. In just 30 minutes, young robot creators can build and program their first working LEGO robot.
āOur mission is to inspire and develop the builders of tomorrow. It is the youth of today that will form the future society, solving the big issues of today and face the challenges ahead of us. We want to prepare them by encouraging them to pursue science, technology, engineering, and math and combine their imagination and creativity with hard skills to, for example, work on space exploration challenges for the common good of us all,ā said Steven Canvin of the LEGO Group. āThis is where the MoonBots 2.0 Challenge is perfect for getting the 9-17 year olds thinking about the problems associated with lunar exploration, by emulating landing on the Moon by building LEGO MINDSTORMS robots.ā
Free registration and Phase One of the contest will be open from May 9th through June 13. Phase Two of the contest begins June 27th through August 15th. To learn more about the MoonBots 2.0 Challenge and to find out how to register a team visit http://www.moonbots.org.?
For more information about the Google Lunar X PRIZE and the teams currently registered in the competition, please visit http://www.googlelunarxprize.org.
ABOUT THE X PRIZE FOUNDATION
Founded in 1995, the X PRIZE Foundation is the leading non-profit organization solving the worldās greatest challenges through creating and managing large-scale, high-profile, incentivized prize competitions that stimulate investment in research and development worth far more than the prize itself. The organization motivates and inspires brilliant innovators from all disciplines and socio-economic sectors to endow their intellectual and financial capital for the benefit of humanity. The X PRIZE Foundation conducts competitions in four Prize Groups: Education & Global Development; Energy & Environment; Life Sciences; and Exploration. Past prizes include the $10 million Ansari X PRIZE for sending the worldās first private vehicle into space and back; and the $10 million Progressive Insurance Automotive X PRIZE for creating safe, affordable, production-capable vehicles that exceed 100 MPG or energy equivalent (MPGe). Active prizes include the $30 million Google Lunar X PRIZE, the $10 million Archon Genomics X PRIZE, and the $1.4 million Wendy Schmidt Oil Cleanup X CHALLENGE. For more information, visit www.xprize.org.
ABOUT THE GOOGLE LUNAR X PRIZE
The $30 million Google Lunar X PRIZE is an unprecedented international competition that challenges and inspires engineers and entrepreneurs from around the world to develop low-cost methods of robotic space exploration. The $30 million prize purse is segmented into a $20 million Grand Prize, a $5 million Second Prize and $5 million in bonus prizes. To win the Grand Prize, a team must successfully soft land a privately funded spacecraft on the Moon, rove on the lunar surface for a minimum of 500 meters, and transmit a specific set of video, images and data back to the Earth. The Grand Prize is $20 million until December 31st 2012; thereafter it will drop to $15 million until December 31st 2014 at which point the competition will be terminated unless extended by Google and the X PRIZE Foundation. For more information about the Google Lunar X PRIZE, please visit www.googlelunarxprize.org.
ABOUT THE LEGO GROUP
The LEGO Group (www.lego.com) is a privately held, family-owned company based in Billund, Denmark. It was founded in 1932, and today, the group is one of the worldās leading manufacturers of play materials for children, employing approximately 5,600 people globally. The LEGO Group is committed to the development of childrenās creative and imaginative abilities. LEGO products can be purchased in more than 130 countries.
ABOUT LEGO MINDSTORMS
In 1998, The LEGO Group spearheaded the consumer robotics category the company with the launch of the LEGOĀ® MINDSTORMSĀ® Robotics Invention System, that introduced children to the world of robotics, and offering the ability to create their own intelligent, interactive, autonomous LEGO robots. The LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT robotics toolkits allow children of all ages to design, build, and program their own robots using LEGO building elements, customized hardware, and an easy-to-use icon-based graphical programming language.
ABOUT WIRED / CONDE NAST
Wired.com is your essential daily guide to what’s next, delivering the most original and complete take you’ll find anywhere on innovation’s impact on technology, science, business and culture. Wired.com’s award-winning news reporting, unique commentary, authoritative reviews and practical hands-on tutorials make it the go-to site for thoughtful and comprehensive coverage of innovation’s impact on all aspects of our lives. Join 14 million of the smartest readers on the planet. Wired.com is part of the CondĆ© Nast Digital Business Group, comprised of Wired.com, Arstechnica.com, Newyorker.com, Golfdigest.com and Reddit.com.
ABOUT FIRSTĀ®
Accomplished inventor Dean Kamen founded FIRSTĀ® (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) in 1989 to inspire an appreciation of science and technology in young people. Based in Manchester, N.H., FIRST designs accessible, innovative programs to build self-confidence, knowledge, and life skills while motivating young people to pursue opportunities in science, technology, and engineering. With support from three out of every five Fortune 500 companies and close to $15 million in college scholarships, the not-for-profit organization hosts the FIRSTĀ® Robotics Competition (FRCĀ® ) and FIRSTĀ® Tech Challenge (FTCĀ® ) for high-school students, FIRSTĀ® LEGOĀ® League (FLLĀ® ) for 9 to 14-year-olds, (9 to 16-year-olds outside the U.S. and Canada) and Junior FIRSTĀ® LEGOĀ® League (Jr.FLLā¢) for 6 to 9-year-olds. Gracious Professionalismā¢ is a way of doing things that encourages high-quality work, emphasizes the value of others, and respects individuals and the community. To learn more about FIRST, go to www.usfirst.org. ??
FIRSTĀ®, the FIRSTĀ® logo, FIRSTĀ® Robotics Competition, FRCĀ®, FIRSTĀ® Tech Challenge, and FTCĀ® are registered trademarks, and Gracious Professionalismā¢ is a common law trademark of the United States Foundation for Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRSTĀ®). LEGOĀ® and MINDSTORMSĀ® are registered trademarks of The LEGO Group. FIRSTĀ® LEGOĀ® League, Junior FIRSTĀ® LEGOĀ® League, FLLĀ®, BODY FORWARDĀ®, and Jr.FLLā¢ are jointly held trademarks of FIRST and The LEGO Group.
I dropped in on the Middle School STEM Expo this morning. I met some very smart kids with a lot of very interesting ideas and projects! I have to admit it was sheer luck that I was able to attend the event. The school district did a blanket call out to parents alerting them to the event late Thursday. I was driving and missed the details. Googling and searching the school website left me with no information. Fortunately, two of the boys in my daughter’s carpool happened to know of it and clued me in on the details. I’m really glad they did.
The expo took over Middleton High School’s gymnasium and cafeteria. In the gym, they had an entire robotics exhibit setup and three different competitive events. Teams of middle school students designed and built robots to navigate a simple maze, drag race, and push a weighted sled up an inclined plane. I really enjoyed watching them compete. There were also a number of robotics themed research projects on display. My favorite was an endangered species tagging and census station which was explained to me by a student from Marshall Middle School. She had a working model demonstrating how polar bears, upon finding the station after being attracted by food, would be tagged and videotaped. The project was well researched, clearly thought out and seemed very practical. It took second place overall in the research judging.
In the cafeteria, students displayed other STEM related projects ranging from electronic and pneumatically driven models to floor standing ball contraptions. My favorites here were the VEX robotics teams from McLane Middle School. I’ve encountered them in previous years at FIRST LEGO League competitions as Team ViBots. Two of the team members spent about twenty minutes explaining their robotics institute and how they went about preparing for the VEX Robotics Competition. Not only did McLane field three teams in the competition, they qualified for the national tournament and then went on to compete in the World championship held last month in Orlando. They brought home several trophies. I was highly impressed with both their success and how articulate the students were in explaining their work.
The final item I found exceptionally interesting were the aquatic ROVs being driven around a kiddie pool outside. Students from Webb Middle School put these together in less than two weeks from PVC pipe, water noodles, and sundry other supplies. They received an equipment loan from the organization who sponsors the MATE’s Annual Florida Regional ROV Competition. The 7th Annual competition was held April 9th at Brevard Community College. The kids attended but did not compete. These kids demonstrated numerous ROV designs capable of navigating the pool under remote control and diving on command. It was a blast to watch!
Sadly, none of the pictures I took came out. I found a nice one by Scott Iskowitz at tbo.com. If anyone would like to contribute their own, I’d love to see them!
I came away from the event very enthusiastic about the state of STEM education in our area. I’m really hoping to see some of these kids at camp this summer!
I just ordered a LEGO Renewable Energy Kit to see if it’s suitable for use as a camp activity for this summer. It looks like a very engaging kit with a dynamo, a solar panel, a rechargeable battery pack, a power meter and a very impressive windmill to generate power.
From LEGO:
Students will explore renewable energy sources; investigate energy supply, transfer, accumulation, conversion, and consumption; and use measurements and data analysis to describe and explain outcomes through hands-on activities and exciting, real-life models.
I’ll post more when I get a chance to look at it in detail.
