LEGO Mountaineers - Team #3344

Using wind turbines for alternative energy

Kevin — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 23:31:04 -0700

Our Research Project is to choose a building in our community, analyze that building, and share our findings with our community. My part of the project is using wind turbines for an alternative energy. There are several advantages and disadvantages for them. Some of the advantages are:

It is an infinite source of energy to use.

It does not rely on fossil fuels to operate.

They don’t take up much land.

There are, however, several disadvantages:

They are expensive to maintain

Many people consider them an eyesore on hillsides.

They generate as much noise as a family van traveling at 70 mph.

They aren’t always spinning, so they aren’t as reliable.

Sometimes some unlucky birds get chopped up in the rotors and make a mess.

This is some of the information I have found.

Originally posted on The LEGO Mountaineers web site

HELP! Can you help me with RoboLab 2.9?

Wendy — Tue, 9 Oct 2007 12:54:58 -0700

I have been having a lot of trouble with programming the NXT rotation
sensor with ROBOLAB 2.9. I can get the rotation sensor to work some
of the time, but whenever I try to add the NXT motor sync option the
robot goes forward forever. A few questions:

Can the rotation sensor and the motor sync blocks coincide?
Is there an easier way to program the rotation sensor?
Where should the motor sync block be placed in the program, before or
after I program the motors to go forward x number of degrees?
Does it matter?

I have also been having trouble controlling my robot's speed. In the
Mindstorms NXT software I can program my robot to gradually increase
my speed as I move forward. How do I do that in ROBOLAB?

If anyone has any suggestions or tips, please post a response. Until
then, I will continue to experiment.

Wendy
The LEGO Mountaineers

Originally posted on The LEGO Mountaineers web site

In Leaps and Bounds

Wendy — Mon, 8 Oct 2007 15:46:55 -0700

I am so excited about what we have been doing with the robot. About two weeks ago, we built a model robot and were able to solve most of the missions with it. Unfortunately, the robot was not stable enough nor built in such a way that would allow us to turn. We decided to keep experimenting with that robot and to build another. In my six years of experimenting with the LEGO robotics, I have found that the best turning design is a four-wheeled drive robot. Using that information, we set out to build a four-wheeled drive robot using the NXT robots and parts. It was pretty hard, but we finally came up with a solution.

Our robot is a much more structurally sound and can turn a lot better. One of the major problems that we have with this robot, though, is that it cannot make a pivot turn successfully. Whenever we program it to do so, the robot "dances" and shakes and cannot turn accurately. Fortunately its arc turn is relatively small and will do the job that we need.

Another good thing about the robot, is that it is much smaller than the previous one and that it has a lot of connection points for arms and bumpers. This will be very useful in the future as we solve the other missions. Our next step is to build a gear locked arm since our arms keep sliding.

Originally posted on The LEGO Mountaineers web site

Wind as an alternative energy source

Kevin — Fri, 5 Oct 2007 18:40:06 -0700

It is an infinite source of energy to use.
It does not rely on fossil fuels to operate.
They don’t take up much land.

There are, however, several disadvantages:

They are expensive to maintain
Many people consider them an eyesore on hillsides.
They generate as much noise as a family van traveling at 70 mph.
They aren’t always spinning, so they aren’t as reliable.
Sometimes some unlucky birds get chopped up in the rotors and make a mess.

Originally posted on The LEGO Mountaineers web site

Moving Forward in our Research

Wendy — Fri, 5 Oct 2007 18:33:14 -0700

For the research project this year, teams are supposed to choose a building in our community, learn how it uses energy, research and suggest improvements, and inform the community. The LEGO Mountaineers have chosen for our research the clubhouse, the local community building toward the center of the valley. The clubhouse has so far proven to be a great choice, for we have found that it has many different things that we can learn about and many places where we can improve their usage of energy.

This morning, our team met with the general manager of the clubhouse, Mr. Rainey, to gather some more information about how they use energy. Mr. Rainey connected us with several people who will give us the information we need. One of our contacts is a bio-fuel expert and biologist who we will be meeting with tomorrow. I am very excited to be learning more about alternative energy and our community.

Originally posted on The LEGO Mountaineers web site

This year’s FIRST research project

Derek — Fri, 5 Oct 2007 09:28:00 -0700

This year’s power puzzle has us researching alternative energy. My assignment is to research enclosing our community pool. We will be evaluating the advantages and disadvantages of such a proposal. I will post more information after I speak with our local experts.

Originally posted on The LEGO Mountaineers web site

Mayan Adventures with the NXT

Kevin — Mon, 1 Oct 2007 16:11:43 -0700

This past week we had been working on a NXT book, The Mayan Adventures, and have built five robots that did various missions. The missions looked simple, but took about one day to do each mission. The first mission was to build a robot that would go down a tunnel, trigger a pressure plate, and drive back. We found that fabrics aren't easily seen by the ultrasonic sensor because we used suitcases for walls. The second mission had us make a robot go across a wire and drop pebbles into a bucket. We used the sound sensor to allow us to stop the robot over the bucket. For our third mission built a robot that looked for a basket surrounded by obsidian. To make things more fun, the robot also had to take a picture of the room. The fourth mission was grabbing a scroll,(we used a paper towel tube). We learned how to build a different kind of arm. The arm flips up and locks in place. The final mission was to push three figurines onto pressure plates. I liked the fifth mission best because it used both sides of the robot.

Originally posted on The LEGO Mountaineers web site

Back for One More Round

Wendy — Sat, 22 Sep 2007 21:28:26 -0700

The LEGO Mountaineers are back for one more season. We are currently competing in the 07-08 Power Puzzle competition. (I'll explain the challenge in another post)

Kevin and Derek Simmons, who had joined us previously for the Spring Showdown event, have joined our team again for this season, and we are all very excited to be competing again.

Originally posted on The LEGO Mountaineers web site

The Challenge is Released!

Wendy — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 21:27:22 -0700

The 07-08 Power Puzzle challenge was released on September 5th. The entire theme this year is using energy wisely.
Because many teams had shored very high last year, FLL Headquarters decided to make it much more challenging. Instead of the standard nine missions,the teams gave been given fourteen missions for surprisingly low points each. These missions include...

Placing a hydro-dam on the river
Placing two wind turbines in housing communities
Pushing a team designed wave turbine into the ocean
Taking oil barrels off a platform
connection communities to a power plant with a power grid
Delivering a hydro car to a house
Activating a solar panel
Collecting corn from a farm
Collecting uranium from a farm
Delivering materials to the power plant
Planting trees
Pushing a coal cart into base

Along with the field missions, each team received the research project challenge. Our challenge this year is to pick a building in our community learn how it uses power, and suggest some improvements. It is also mandatory that we share our findings with the community.

This year looks like a lot of fun and we are looking forward to getting started.

Originally posted on The LEGO Mountaineers web site

The 2007 FIRST Challenge is Released!

Wendy — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 19:08:46 -0700

The 07-08 Power Puzzle challenge was released on September 5th. The entire theme this year is using energy wisely.
Because many teams had scored very high last year, FLL Headquarters decided to make it much more challenging. Instead of the standard nine missions,the teams gave been given fourteen missions for surprisingly low points each. These missions include...

Placing a hydrodam on the river
Placing two wind turbines in housing communities
Pushing a team designed wave turbine into the ocean
Taking oil barrels off a platform
connection communities to a power plant with a power grid
Delivering a hydrocar to a house
Activating a solar panel
Collecting corn from a farm
Collecting uranium from a farm
Delivering materials to the power plant
Planting trees
Pushing a coal cart into base

Triumph and Success

Wendy — Tue, 1 May 2007 22:54:21 -0700

Saturday our team, the LEGO Mountaineers, competed in the 2007 Spring Showdown at Newhall, Santa Clarita. As I have posted earlier there were three divisions in this particular competition.

First we competed in the mission rounds. In earlier meetings we had determined the following order in which the pilots and co-pilots could compete:

Round One: Emily pilots, Wendy co-pilots

Round Two: Faith pilots, Amy co-pilots

Round Three: Wendy pilots, Derek co-pilots

During the first mission round, Emily became ill and couldn't compete. Since everyone had been able to practice at each role, Kevin was able to fill in as my co-pilot.

The second part was the sumo competition. Kevin and Derek had worked very hard on the sumo bot area and they came up with an incredibly strong robot. During this round, Kevin piloted and Kelly co-piloted. Our team did very well in both of these divisions.

The third division was an on the spot event. Each team brought a kit of parts and a computer to the competition. After the mission and sumo events, everyone who was not on the team (That included coaches) left the building and the teams were given their assignment.

This assignment was very clever. All of the lights in the gymnasium were turned off and the judges placed a lit light bulb on the center of each table. Our mission was to have the robot face the wall, do a 180 degree turn, drive toward the light, and touch it without knocking it out of a circle. The tricky part was that the teams had to hand the robot we came up with to the judges to place in any corner of the field they chose.

We were able to successful complete the turn, find the light, and drive toward it. Unfortunately, our robot had some technical difficulties during the actual event.

The LEGO Mountaineers did very well in all three divisions and we were awarded the first place trophies in both the missions mat and the sumo event. We also won the Director's Award which is the highest over all award possible.

Our team really enjoyed this event and we learned a lot about robot designs, torque, gears, arms, motors, the RoboLab software, etc.

On behalf of the LEGO Mountaineers, I would like to thank Miss Wendy Mathis, Mr. Paul Kass, and all of the volunteers who made this event possible. We look forward to competing again in the future.

Originally posted on The LEGO Mountaineers web site

We won the Director’s award!

Kevin — Mon, 30 Apr 2007 22:52:45 -0700

We had a wonderful time at the competition on Saturday! Of the three rounds on the mission mat, Wendy and Derek scored the highest. In the Sumo Event, Kelly was my co-pilot, and I couldn't have done it without her. For the On-the-Spot mission we had build and program a robot that would find the light bulb in the middle of the field. In the testing it worked fine, but for some reason all of the programs got deleted right before the match. We did go home with a few trophies, however. We placed first in the Mission mat, with 137 points. We also won the Sumo event. And finally, we earned The Director's Award! We were all very excited and I will be doing the Lego Robotics next year.
Kevin

Originally posted on The LEGO Mountaineers web site

Competition Time

Kevin — Fri, 27 Apr 2007 22:35:23 -0700

Tonight we cleared up all of the problems in our robot. For some reason, the weight-lifting mission developed an error. Due to a Slight modification, we had upset the balance of the robot and caused it to veer. We replaced the batteries so it could follow the line easier and operate the touch sensor. We are all ready and excited about the competition tomorrow and Derek and I are quite nervous because this is our time in a competition.

Originally posted on The LEGO Mountaineers web site

We finally figured out a way to do the line following

Kevin — Tue, 24 Apr 2007 21:54:28 -0700

We mixed point turns and arc turns. Point turns are where each motor spins in the opposite direction, with one at a higher setting than the other. Arc turns happen when only one motor spins and the other one brakes, allowing the robot to make an arch-like motion across the field. By mixing these two turns, the robot could maneuver down the line in about twenty seconds.

Originally posted on The LEGO Mountaineers web site

The Clock is Ticking!

Wendy — Mon, 16 Apr 2007 23:14:00 -0700

The LEGO Mountaineers are back with a new spring robotics event! After the FIRST LEGO League season ended, two teachers from the Newhall competition created their own LEGO robotics event to continue encouraging kids in robotics. Soon after the season ended, our team, the LEGO Mountaineers, applied for this event and were accepted.

We realized that to be most efficient during this event, we would need to have more people participating, so we asked former team member, Faith Steele, to join us. The LEGO Mountaineers also made the decision to include two new members to our team. Kevin and Derek Simmons have both joined our team and we are thrilled to have them.

The teams started mid-March and will be preparing until the end of April when we will be competing. The Spring Showdown competition consists of three parts: the mission mat where each team completes the individual assignments, the sumo wrestling event where robots are randomly paired up against each other and have to push the opponent out of the ring, and an on the spot event where the teams have to bring parts and computers to complete an assignment that will be given to them at the competition.

The mission event is divided into two parts: line following and the individual missions. At the beginning of each match the robots must start at the opposite end of the base and follow a line back. There are markers that the robot must pass to earn points, and the goal is to get back to the base. Once the robots are back in the base the robots can complete any mission in any order they want to. There are five missions that the teams can complete:
Weight Lifting – the robot must lift a barbell onto a stand

Dirt Molecules – the robot must clear the sumo ring of dirt particles and bring them back to base
Fencing – the robot must knock only one LEGO man off of a table
Basketball – the robot must drop the buckey ball through a basketball hoop
Long Jump – the robot must trigger a switch that catapults a LEGO man into the air.
The LEGO Mountaineers are very excited about this event and we hope to keep you updated.

Originally posted on The LEGO Mountaineers web site

We’re Making Progress!

Wendy — Fri, 6 Apr 2007 23:12:42 -0700

For the first few meetings our team worked on building various sumo robots to try out various ideas, strategies, and lessons we had learned.
During the last two meetings, we focused on the mission part of the competition. Our team split up into two groups: group one worked on the barbell mission and group two worked on the long jump. The teams completed the barbell mission and experimented with various ideas to trigger the long jump.

One challenge we faced was how to repeatedly push down the right lever. An idea that we had was to drop something heavy on the correct lever. This idea did work but getting the robot there was very inconsistent. We are now experimenting with how to push the lever to launch the LEGO man.

We finished the barbell mission but it may not be the final mission that our team uses. I am so excited to be making progress!

Originally posted on The LEGO Mountaineers web site

Frustration and Triumph

Wendy — Fri, 6 Apr 2007 23:11:50 -0700

Last night, after repeatedly having trouble with the line following part of the competition, we all went home frustrated and discouraged. The robot didn't seem to work properly and we were having trouble understanding why. Today, we worked hard with Kevin and Derek to make some progress.

This meeting consisted of two parts: a three hour meeting without mentors, and another meeting with. During the first half, we mainly focused on learning RoboLab. I was able to share with the others how to flowchart, (A tool I have found invaluable in programming) and give them a brief once over of this software. After much discussion, we finally decided to use this program as the official team software.

Toward the end of the second meeting, we were able to solve the line following mission. Our team found that because of the sharp lines that our robot was required to follow, moving in a slow arch instead of a point turn caused the robot to respond sluggishly with varying results. (We made this turn by braking one motor and having the other drive forward) After a lot of problem solving we came up with a solution that seemed to work consistently. Using a point turn, we sped up its forward motion and slowed down its backward pull. This way, the robot turned accurately, yet still made it to base in a reasonable amount of time.

We also were able to adjust our light sensor so that it relied completely on its own light and not on its surroundings. This will be very helpful because at each competition, the lighting can change.

I think the neatest thing that I saw during this meeting was that the others learned so much in such a short period of time, and actually enjoyed it! Even though I have had the privilege of working with RoboLab for three years I still haven't come close to learning what it can do. It seems that each time I sit down to work with it I learn something new.

We all learned a lot this meeting and we are excited about solving our next mission.

Originally posted on The LEGO Mountaineers web site

Long Jump Mission ideas

Kevin — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 09:53:29 -0700

At our last meeting, we experimented with different missions. I had the opportunity to work on the Long Jump Mission. The three of us, Amy, Emily, and myself, came up with the idea of using an arm to drop a LEGO weight onto the switch, which would launch the lego man across the table. The arm had two hooks that held the weight above the ground. When we activate the motor, the hooks would swing out, drop the weight, and hit one of the switches. The arm, because of its size, had to be mounted on top of our robot. The problem was getting the arm to hit the correct switch. We built a hollow square that surrounded the switches so that the weights wouldn’t miss. Then we had to figure out a way to aim the weight so that it could repetitively hit the correct switch. Amy decided to place a flat bar across the box to shrink the area in which the weight could fall. It was successful, and we were able to shoot the lego man. It was great for a first night.

Originally posted on The LEGO Mountaineers web site

Great Job Flying Geeks!!!

Wendy — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 21:10:00 -0700

Today, our coach pulled us aside and told us he had downloaded a video that we really needed to see. Amy and I watched with literally open mouths as the Flying Geeks accomplished mission after mission, ALL WITHOUT TOUCHING THE ROBOT!!!

You must watch this amazing video of the Flying Geeks.
(Right-click to download, it's a large file)

Using a basic RCX and some amazing programming, the Flying Geeks completed every mission, and achieved a perfect score of 400, with at least a minute to spare! Their team has truly accomplished an amazing feat.
On behalf of the LEGO Mountaineers I would like to congratulate the Flying Geeks on accomplishing all of the missions and beating previous records. Good luck at the nationals!

Source: MindstormsMayhem

Originally posted on The LEGO Mountaineers web site

Clovis - The State Competition

Amy — Mon, 11 Dec 2006 17:18:30 -0700

Well, we just got through the last competition for the season. This competition was held in Clovis and was the big state competition. If we won this one, we would be invited to attend the nationals.

When we got there, we were surprised to learn that seventy-seven teams would be competing at Clovis. Normally, twenty to thirty teams show up at regular competitions. This would mean that we would have to work a lot harder to win the Champion's Award.

This competition, we did better than the last two competitions. We gave everyone an equal chance to do their favorite missions and worked hard to score points with the judges. We had incredibly success at the field and scored some unexpected points.

You may be wondering, by now, what awards we won. We did not win any awards this particular competition. In fact, only twelve awards were given out, so most teams did not receive an award. Our team did, however get in fifteenth place out off seventy- seven teams.

I really don't look on it as a loss, though. We came out of the season having won three impressive awards; Teamwork, and two Robot Design awards. Those were both areas that we really struggled on in past years, so for us to have overcome that handicap is a great achievement.

We will not be going to the Nationals this year, but, hopefully, some new opportunities will arise. Thank you for following our team through our trials and successes. We had a lot of fun this season and really learned a lot.

Originally posted on The LEGO Mountaineers web site

The Judge gives us our score for the event

Emily — Mon, 11 Dec 2006 17:02:48 -0700

In this picture, we are talking with the judge. He is confirming our scores. After checking, he made sure that we agreed with the scores and took an autograph of one person on the team. In the first round, our score was: 253! How exciting is that? Our judge was very nice and we got him as a judge every time.

Originally posted on The LEGO Mountaineers web site

Okay, We’re Nervous

Wendy — Thu, 7 Dec 2006 21:51:00 -0700

As the state competition draws nearer our team becomes busier. We have spent the past few days testing, practicing, rehearsing, and so forth. So, are we nervous? Not the LEGO Mountaineers! (Well, maybe a little)

We have de-bugged our robot to the best of our ability and improved our strategy. Amy built an attachment for the dirt trap that directs the dust into it. During a perfect match, we have flawlessly been able to get the full 75 points for the mission.

Our team has decided on a new competition strategy. Because each of us has a strength on the field we will rotate team members in to complete each mission. With this strategy we were able to get well over 230 points consistently, and once we even got 275.

I am so excited about our upcoming competition. Tomorrow will be one of our last days to drill.

This looks like it is going to be the best year ever for the LEGO Mountaineers!

Originally posted on The LEGO Mountaineers web site

Good, Bad, And A Little In-Between

Amy — Thu, 7 Dec 2006 21:42:14 -0700

As we only have a few days left until the next competition, we thought it would be a good idea to list our good points, our bad points, and some things we need to make sure we point out to the judges. This will help us think through what we need to improve.

Here is the mind map we created in MindManager think through what we need to improve.
20061207 - LEGO Brainstorm Mind Map.pdf

Originally posted on The LEGO Mountaineers web site

Judging Criteria & Review

Amy — Mon, 4 Dec 2006 14:07:40 -0700

Well, we are preparing for the final competition for this year. This is really important, because if we do incredibly well we might be selected to go to the Nationals. Everyone is really looking forward to this, but we're a little nervous.

We have just reviewed the judging criteria for this upcoming event. That is the sheet letting you know what you will be graded on in the competition, and what things the judges are looking for. This is a big aid, because it both tells us what to expect, and it helps us grade ourselves here. We can also know if we need to change anything.

As I have been reading over the criteria, I noticed that most of the things that needed to be changed were not in our research presentation or our robot. In fact, what we need to improve is was our answers to the judges. For example; if a judge asked us about our programming we might want to point out that we have loops in our program.

This is really is something our team needs to focus on. I think it will give us a better chance at the Champion's Award if we work on it.

Originally posted on The LEGO Mountaineers web site

Tips and Tricks with the Light Sensor

Wendy — Mon, 4 Dec 2006 12:21:13 -0700

Yesterday, Amy, Emily and I worked for a few hours to de-bug the Smell (Pizza Molecule) mission. We were experiencing turning problems at the competition, which was rather strange because our robot had performed perfectly at our practice table.

When my sisters and I tried it on the table five out of five times it didn't work. Our mom had given the rest of the day to work on robotics and we knew we had some time to experiment. The three of us decided to test our old theory of following the line to the pizza molecules.

As the four of us had gone through the tutorials for the NXT, we had a lot of success with the light sensor. The team was able to get the robot to follow the line, but it keep sensing the colored molecules as black. This started a series of test to find the right programming number so that our robot would only sense the black line as "dark" and everything else as "light".

I know this is a little late in the year, but for any team who has experienced the same difficulties, the number is 35.

As it turned out, we decided not to follow the line because of the time limit. Instead, we used the light sensor to stop at various lines and preform certain actions. Even though we weren't able to use the light sensor as much as we needed to, it was a great learning experience and I believe all of us gained a lot.

Originally posted on The LEGO Mountaineers web site

I’m Proud Of Them

Amy — Wed, 22 Nov 2006 21:32:36 -0700

Kelly and Emily, though it is their very first year competing in the FLL program, did an outstanding job at the past two competitions. I'm especially proud of them for the San Deigo competition. Emily and Kelly piloted the robot by themselves and did amazingly well. I must admit, Wendy and I were really impressed at how they tuned everything out and focused on the match.

Emily piloted the first match and recieved 199 points! Kelly followed closely behind and piloted our third match and recieved 109 points! I am extremely proud of their achievements.

Not only am I proud of their piloting skills, they also did a wonderful job giving our presentation and answering questions. In fact, they were so good that they answered a lot of the questions that the judges asked us.

I hope that Emily and Kelly will continue to do as well in our next competition.

Originally posted on The LEGO Mountaineers web site

I Got To Pilot!!!

Kelly — Wed, 22 Nov 2006 18:56:00 -0700

I got to pilot for my first time in our second competition at San Diego. I piloted the third round of the competition and Amy copiloted. We got most of the missions right and scored 109 points! I think I could have aimed the dirt trap better, but I'm happy about the match. I hope I might be able to get to pilot in the big state competition.

Originally posted on The LEGO Mountaineers web site

Shortening Our Presentation

Emily — Wed, 22 Nov 2006 09:17:00 -0700

At the first competition, our team had a video for the research presentation. It turned out, our video was 3 minuets long! We didn't have enough time to finish our presentation.

At the next competition we got rid of the video and found we had a minute to spare. In this picture I am answering some of the judge's questions.

I had lots of fun at this competition. And I hope I have fun at the next competition.

Emily Mack
LEGO Mountaineers

Originally posted on The LEGO Mountaineers web site

Our Research Presentation

Kelly — Tue, 21 Nov 2006 21:25:07 -0700

We went to the presentation room and gave our presentation to two judges. Our presentation was about the Carpal Tunnel Robot we designed to solve one of the causes of Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. (Carpal Tunnel Syndrome is a painful problem in the wrist that happens when something pushes on the Median Nerve.)

I had a lot of fun giving this presentation. I can't wait until the next competition!

Originally posted on The LEGO Mountaineers web site

We won the robot design award!!!

Amy — Tue, 21 Nov 2006 18:12:00 -0700

That's right! At the San Diego competition, this weekend, we received the Robot Design Award, again.

This really means a lot to us, in past years, that had been our weakest point. We had really struggled with it this year as well, and devoted most of our time into making improvements. It is great that we improved so much from past years that we won this award twice!

In this picture, Wendy, Emily, Kelly and I are posing in front of the Nano Quest sign holding our certificate. We had a lot of fun competing and we look forward to the next competition.

Originally posted on The LEGO Mountaineers web site

On Deck

Amy — Tue, 21 Nov 2006 18:01:00 -0700

This weekend, we competed in San Diego along with a few other teams. We had a lot of fun and were glad that our grandparents and a friend of my father came to cheer us on.

My father was busy snapping pictures of us at any moment. Here's a last minute picture of us on deck before going up to compete. On deck is a row of whairs is where the teams wait to go to the playing field to compete. For some teams, this is an incredibly tense few moments as members of the team race between their other members and the computer, programming last minute changes and re-building parts. For other teams, it is a time to observe the approaches people take on the field, and review our strategies.

Being on deck is also a way for judges to observe your team. They watch to see if you are helping other teams, or are you trying to put them down. Are you calm about the upcoming match? Or are you bickering with your teammates about who get's to pilot the robot. In fact, any little thing that you do is watched and scored either for or against you. The interesting thing, though, is that you might not know you're being watched. They have judges in normal clothes watching you from behind the scenes.

Even with all the pressure of the matches, we had a lot of fun and had some new experiences.

Originally posted on The LEGO Mountaineers web site

Our 2006 Research Presentation

Amy — Tue, 21 Nov 2006 17:55:00 -0700

"Hello happy humanoids! And welcome to my land. My name is Tom Morrow, and this is Tomorrow Land. I'm here to tell you about a place where Inventions and Innovations can be smushed together to form one big happy word... Innoventions! Amazing new stuff that's going to make your life better!"

This is what Tom Morrow states that is just part of the introduction for our presentation. We had fun writing this presentation, along with producing the introduction movie, but we had even more fun presenting it. Our theme? Disney Imagineers introducing the Carpal Tunnel Robot (CTR) to the audience at Disney's Innoventions theater.

We really enjoyed showing this to the judges and knowing that they enjoyed it as much as we did. In this past competition we left out the intro movie because it took too much time and we couldn't cut it down before the competition. (I regret that.) So, we acted out the movie and presented it all live.

As we were waiting for our turn to present our robot, we were passed by a team who had just finished giving their presentation. They must have had an extremely interesting presentation, for one of the team members was wearing a hand made Yoda costume and clay mask. They later went on to win the Presentation Award. (That's the cool part of these competitions. You never know what you might run into.)

We had a lot of fun competing, and are going to work on making the movie shorter before the next competition.

Originally posted on The LEGO Mountaineers web site

Our Technical Presentation

Kelly — Wed, 15 Nov 2006 13:15:00 -0700

When we went to the table that we first competed at, we gave our technical presentation. We figured out that if we just set our presentation scripts aside, the judges paid more attention to us and they asked a lot more questions. We talked about our robot and explained how it worked, all of the parts we used, how we solved the missions, and how our team's technique was different than anybody else's. We were inside a gymnasium at a school in Santa Clarita, it was really loud and we had to almost shout to make them hear our presentation. I had lots and lots of fun giving both presentations and competing at the table.

We are going to San Diego to go to another LEGO competition. I might even get to pilot the robot for the first time! I'm a little nervous, but excited too!

Wish us luck!

Kelly

Originally posted on The LEGO Mountaineers web site

A Nice Surprise For Our First Competition

Amy — Wed, 15 Nov 2006 13:08:00 -0700

This last week was our first competition. Although my mother had sent out invitations inviting people to come watch, we weren't really sure if anyone would come. Thus it was a nice surprise when my grandfather, his friend, and my aunt Royce came to cheer us on. They were also some of our sponsors, so it meant a lot to us that they came.

Another unexpected surprise was that our AWANA leader came as well. Our whole family is involved in the AWANA program, which is a great way to memorize Bible verses, learn more about the Bible, and fellowship with other kids. We had just mentioned it briefly to Mr. Jones, our leader, and were unaware that he was interested in coming. My mother apparently sent him the directions and times and he came to cheer us on.

I just want to say a BIG thank you to everyone who came to watch us on. It really encouraged us and lifted our spirits. THANK YOU!

Originally posted on The LEGO Mountaineers web site

Patience and hard work made all the difference!

Amy — Wed, 15 Nov 2006 08:30:00 -0700

Yesterday, we had the first competition of the season, the Santa Clarita Valley FIRST LEGO League Regional Tournament. We did incredibly well and were fortunate to receive two awards, the Teamwork Award and the Best NXT Design Award!

In past years, our strength had always lied in our presentation skills, not our robot. In fact, that was really our weakest point. Each year, we come a little bit closer to having a strong robot design, but we never fully got there; until now.

Because teams could choose between the RCX or the NXT, the Best Robot Design Award was split into two categories based on what you chose. We had really spent a lot of time and work into this years robot and even ended up coming with six different designs before deciding upon a design that suited all our needs. With our past record, we really didn't expect to win any robot design award. Which is why we were so surprised when we were given this particular award.

It may sound weird, but we're a little glad that we didn't win the top award. If we had, it would have been great, but I think it meant more to us that we achieved something we put so much time and effort into, and had never succeeded in before.

Our next competition is next week in San Diego. Hopefully, we will do well there too.

Originally posted on The LEGO Mountaineers web site

A mother’s perspective on teamwork

Kathy — Sun, 12 Nov 2006 21:02:00 -0700

I am so very proud of my girls, and their accomplishments at the Santa Clarita Valley First LEGO League Tournament. It was the most well-run event I have ever seen. Major kudos to Wendy Mathis, the coordinator and teacher at Placerita Junior High School.

I think what stood out to me the most was people's reactions to our team when they found out that the girls are all sisters. Everyone said that they couldn't believe that four sisters could get along so well and accomplish anything. They insisted that their children could never have done that. felt very sad for them.

Our media certainly doesn't encourage siblings to get along. How many sitcoms have siblings putting each other, and their parents down? Do you see any TV shows today where family members encourage each other and build them up? Perhaps our success is that we don't watch television, just preselected videos.

Most families divide their children up into different bedrooms so everyone has their "own space". In our family, all four girls share a room - we have two sets of bunk beds. They have learned to share their space since they were born.

So, the Teamwork Award meant the most to me. I hope, that through that, parents saw that it is possible to raise children who can work together, and encourage each other. Do my children ever bicker? Of course! But they also know how to resolve their issues.

Originally posted on The LEGO Mountaineers web site

Expect the Unexpected - Five Tips when Competing

Wendy — Sun, 12 Nov 2006 21:01:00 -0700

Using the knowledge that we gained from today's competition, our team came up with a list of five things that we needed to check before each round. We have decided to share that list with other teams so that they can also be prepared.
1. Make sure that the Individual Atom Manipulation is set up properly with a white atom in the north-east corner
2. Double check that the elevator is set up correctly, making sure that the elevator isn't jammed in between blocks
3. Try to do a visual check to see if the mat is uneven
4. Do a quick check over the field to see if all of the missions have been completely set up.
5. At every competition they play really loud music. In some cases, depending on where the competition is being held, the floor vibrates and the robot moves more than intended. Try to have a backup plan, either in aiming or in programming.

Originally posted on The LEGO Mountaineers web site

Two Trophies and Four Medals

Emily — Sun, 12 Nov 2006 20:44:00 -0700

Saturday, The LEGO Mountaineers went to a LEGO competition. The theme was nanotechnology Our presentation was very different from past years.

Our research project was about how to prevent CARPEL TUNNEL SYNDROME. Our model was called the CTR (carpel tunnel robot).

At the competition, we had three rounds. This is our schedule for them.

1.Wendy Pilot. Amy Copilot

2.Amy pilot, Emily copilot

3. Wendy pilot and Kelly copilots

A copilot is somebody that helps the pilot. In the copilot's mind they have a checklist, such as, arm down, missions set up correctly, and so on. I would prefer being the pilot so I am practicing for the next competition, because Amy and Wendy said that if I practiced I could pilot.

My favorite part of the competition was the research project. I liked doing the Disney skit.

I am really looking forward to next week's competition.

-Emily

Originally posted on The LEGO Mountaineers web site

We Did It!

Wendy — Sun, 12 Nov 2006 10:41:00 -0700

Today, our team competed in our first competition of the season, in Newhall, California. We had a fantastic time competing, and I believe that Emily and Kelly enjoyed it. It was surprising how well run this competition was and how quickly we moved from event to event.

One thing that surprised me was that they held to the five minute rule for the research presentation. In all of our competitions for the past five years we have never been held to that rule. At first we were very upset because in past years our research has always been the strongest aspect of our team.

We were pleasantly surprised when our robot did relatively well, although we did have a few problems with some of the missions. One of the things that I learned was that I really need to take a few seconds and aim the robot before launching some of the programs. Our team found that when we tried to rush through the missions, the robot often messed up, and we had over thirty seconds to spare.

On our last round on the playing field, our team met and decided that we needed to slow down and take our time aiming. It was rather hard because in my mind I expected the buzzer to ring at any moment. Just as the robot finished the mission that we had assigned it, the buzzer rang. We had completed all most all of the missions that we had programmed!

The LEGO Mountaineers were so excited about the day. We had a few disappointments, and our robot still had a few bugs that we needed to work out, but we still felt good about the competition.

This year, our team was awarded the teamwork award and the robot design award. This is wonderful because we had really struggled with the robot in the past years.

Our team has learned a lot at this competition. We have learned what worked or didn't work and what we needed to fix. Also Emily and Kelly learned what a competition was like.

I am so proud of them, they did a wonderful job both on the field and during the presentations. If we have time, we will be training them how to aim the robot, so that they can pilot next week.

This has been a wonderful experience. I can't wait the next competition.

Originally posted on The LEGO Mountaineers web site

A Presentation, a movie, and a lot of imagination!

Amy — Thu, 9 Nov 2006 14:25:00 -0700

In LEGO League Robotics, we don't just learn how to program and build robots; we also have to give a presentation. This year, we have to solve a problem using nanotechnology and present our solution to a panel of judges. The problem: Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. The solution: the CTR (Carpal Tunnel Robot).

We really struggled in finding a creative way of presenting our solution. In past years, we found that giving our presentation in the form of a skit really gave it an interesting twist, and that the judges enjoyed it. In previous presentations, we've assumed the characters of super heroes, scientists, pedestrians, martians, NASA engineers, board executives, reporters, and marine lab scientists. As you can see, we really had a lot of fun and the judges enjoyed it too.

We decided to continue the skit idea this year, but we had trouble thinking up new, and innovative characters. We really didn't want to copy some of our previous ideas, but we didn't want to be anything boring either. We finally came up with the idea of being Disney cast members presenting this new technology at the theater in Innoventions.

The script came easily once we had decided upon the theme. We all, though, agreed that we needed an introduction movie of Innoventions to set the stage. So, we drove to Disneyland and spent an hour capturing scenes at strategic places. After that, we headed home to produce the movie.

Our coach and I were assigned the task of producing the movie. Needless to say, I had never done anything like this before, so this was a new experience for me. Fortunately, our coach knew the top seven steps to producing a movie. Here are those seven steps, along with some explanations.

Record
Capture - (Put it onto the computer)
Inventory Video - (Make sure we know what's on there so we can edit it in the future)
Play Scenes - (Get a feel for how long it is and where the good scenes are)
Edit Video
Edit Audio
Publish Video - (Copy it onto disk and get it ready for competition)

Right now, we are still on step five as we work on getting it to just the right length. Hopefully, we'll finish that soon and move on to the last two steps.

Originally posted on The LEGO Mountaineers web site

You’ve helped us more than you know

Wendy — Wed, 8 Nov 2006 19:39:19 -0700

This year, the LEGO Mountaineers have the privilege of being sponsored by many generous people and companies, but they have helped us more than financially. We have been given tools, encouragement, and we have learned valuable lessons from our sponsors.

Our team has used some of the GTD methods, by David Allen, such as always looking for the successful outcome and asking ourselves what the next action is. One of the main ways we have used GTD is in coaching our little sisters, and getting them to determine the next step. This works great with little people with short attention spans.

A major tool that we have used in our team strategies and discussions is mind mapping. We have used the MindManager software to help us visualize what our goals were, and the steps we needed to accomplish it.

In our continuous blog posts, documents, presentations, etc. ActiveWords has been a major time-saver for our team. Instead of continuously typing the same things over and over again or having to navigate to certain pages or programs, we were able to use this software to buy us some much needed time.

Unfortunately, because of the fire evacuation, we lost a lot of time that we could have used to experiment and learn new software. One of the things that we weren't able to do was to experiment with the Gyronix software. One of the things that they helped us with, though was Nick Duffill, one of the founders of Gyronix, spent a lot of time and created a mind map with some extremely valuable lessons. We have used the advice Mr. Duffill has given us and have been able to successfully correct the robot and have saved ourselves a lot of time. Thank you Gyronix!

We have several private sponsors who have constantly encouraged us and checked in on our team. Jason Womack is friend of the family who has been a great champion and encourager over the past few years. Gene Mack and Judy Geffen, J.P. and Pam Amor, and our Aunt Royce, have also encouraged us and are constantly asking how the team is doing.

We really appreciate all of the support that our sponsors have given us. Thank you so much!

The LEGO Mountaineers

Originally posted on The LEGO Mountaineers web site

Our robot is ready for anything

Wendy — Wed, 8 Nov 2006 18:54:00 -0700

Today I finished programming the last two missions that we had left, the pizza molecules and the elevator. Because we had a lot of turning in these missions, and because we couldn't do our method of forward and backward turns to inch our way around, I had to find a new way.

After Amy and I tested our theory of driving backwards, we determined that our robot could only turn even remotely well when driving forward. After several other experimentations we discovered a solution to our problem. A few days ago we had found that our robot could turn reliably for a certain number of rotations. After that, our robot was unpredictable.

We were able to trick the robot by programming short pauses in between turns. Finally our robot started turning precisely.

Our team has now completed seven out of the nine missions available. We are now entering the rehearsing stage. With three days left our team is ready for anything!

Originally posted on The LEGO Mountaineers web site

LEGO Mountaineers visit Disneyland!

Wendy — Wed, 8 Nov 2006 18:46:00 -0700

Last night, our team met at Disneyland to do some on site filming for our research presentation. Part of the research presentation involves us setting the theme of having our nanotechnology presentation at Disneyland's Innoventions - a demonstration center for science and technology.

This was a serious work mission.

Unfortunately, we didn't make it until it was dark, but we were able to get some reasonably good video.

Once we were done recording the video clips on our script, we got to spend an hour visiting the park.

I was very surprised how fast Disney decorates for the holidays. Almost all of Disneyland was decorated, minus a few of the big rides.

I really enjoyed visiting the "Happiest Place On Earth". It was a welcome distraction from the Nonstop weeks we've had with LEGO League, yet I still felt like I was getting something done.

Our team is looking forward to our first competition, which is in three days! We've finally gotten everything ready for both our research and technical presentation. We have two more missions to program and we are completely ready.

Originally posted on The LEGO Mountaineers web site

"Everything’s going my way..."

Wendy — Mon, 6 Nov 2006 20:43:00 -0700

Today, Amy and I have been working very hard on our competition robot. When we left on vacation, we could successfully complete the Nano tube Strength mission, the Buckyball mission, the Dirt Trap, the Unstick Nanotip mission, and the Individual Atom Manipulation. We had started on the Unstainable Fabric mission before we left, and we had been having a very hard time getting it to work. Our robot was almost never turning in the right direction, and, when it finally did, it never did the same thing twice.

This morning, we experienced the same problems, and we spent until late in the afternoon, troubleshooting and de-bugging the program. Finally Amy and I removed all of the instructions that we had programmed after the problem spot and started from there. Finally our robot started turning in the right direction!

We were able to solve a major problem with the turning by driving in a forward turn, then backing up in the reverse direction. With this process our robot turned more precisely and we were able to get our robot to a general location.
Nine out of ten times our robot has been able to get to the right spot. Just in case it didn't turn correctly during the competition, we added a backup instruction that would either make the appropriate adjustments for our robot, or it will simple leave the robot in an angle that would still accomplish what we wanted.

Our team has been able to successfully get at least sixty points for this mission, and sometimes we have even gotten the full seventy points!
We have trained Emily and Kelly to steer the robot, although they will probably just be copilots during the competition. I am really impressed with their ability to aim. Emily has shown a good eye for lining by sight, and Kelly has been able to quickly grasp the instructions that we have given her to aim.

Our research and technical presentations have been completed and we have been able to run over the technical presentation a few times. Both boards will be finished tonight and we are so excited.

Things are finally looking up for the LEGO Mountaineers. At last, "everything's going our way."

Originally posted on The LEGO Mountaineers web site

The competition is getting close!

Wendy — Sun, 5 Nov 2006 20:41:00 -0700

In less than six days the LEGO Mountaineers will be competing in our first competition! This last week we have been working frantically on our research presentation. We have completed the team board and are now working on our presentation board.

It took a while but we finally chose our research project and got to work. Our team has invented a robot that will solve the problem of carpal tunnel syndrome. Because there are many causes for this big problem, we have decided to focus on carpal tunnel syndrome caused by tendentious.

Carpal tunnel syndrome occurs when something (in this case excess fluid) pushes or pressures the median nerve in the carpal tunnel, which is the largest nerve in your arm and hand.

This is a serious problem that causes intense pain in your hand and often can leave people unable to perform many of the functions that they could normally accomplish.

Current operations cut the carpal ligament, which forms the upper lining of the carpal tunnel, in hopes that the ligament will knit itself back together leaving more room for the median nerve. This isn’t as effective because, in many cases, the ligament never fully heals, and the wrist loses its strength.

Following the LEGO Mountaineers traditional presentation styles, we opted to perform a skit during which we will introduce our robot to the judges.

In this skit, you are in the Innoventions Theater at Disneyland, learning about the newest medical discovery. The judges and anyone else in the room will be our “audience” and we hope to make it as realistic as possible. We will be using many props and are considering using a mock demonstration to make it more realistic.

We’re counting down the days as we rush to complete everything. I can’t wait until our first competition.

Originally posted on The LEGO Mountaineers web site

Slow and Steady Wins the Race

Amy — Fri, 27 Oct 2006 15:33:00 -0700

Or in our case, "Slow and steady wins the competition". Wendy and I stayed up till 12:45 working on our robot. It's been slow, but we've been making progress in the right direction. Last night, we went to bed with three missions working continuously.

Today, however, Wendy and I have again returned to the robot and have been programming all day. We now have two more missions working and are half-way through the third. Unfortunately, we forgot to charge the robot last night and have now had to take a break to re-charge it. We hope to finish the last few missions after the robot is charged.

Originally posted on The LEGO Mountaineers web site

It’s past time to go to bed!

Amy — Fri, 27 Oct 2006 00:42:00 -0700

After completing the Bucky Ball mission, Amy and I turned to our longest and most point gaining missions. This is a combination of the Stuck Nanotip, Individual Atom Manipulation, and the Unstainable Fabric. These mission will all be programmed into one slot, and we will do this sequence towards the end of our two and a half minutes during the competition.

We have been working for a solid four hours on the various missions that we have chosen and it is now 12:45! Amy and I are exhausted, but we feel really good about our robot's performance. We are going to hook up the robot to charge and we ourselves are about to go "charge our own batteries". We look forward to completing more missions in the morning.

Originally posted on The LEGO Mountaineers web site

Balancing on the high wire

Amy — Thu, 26 Oct 2006 23:23:00 -0700

That is what it feels like we are doing as we try to balance Research and Robot. And our deadline is drawing ever closer! No pressure, however, because we are the Lego Mountaineers and we can do anything! (Right?)

Actually, for all the pressure of the deadline, we are really plodding along at a slow, but steady pace. Most of what we have been doing was testing, till today. Today, we got down to the programming aspect of the mission and have been doing pretty well. We have fully completed two missions and are now breaking for dinner. This hasn't been without it's setbacks, however, on the Nanotube Strength, we spent thirty minutes trying to fix the broken prop that got rammed into by another robot. Another problem was that our robot would turn successfully until it got to a certain degree. We spent an hour and a half working out the bugs on that one. Although we have had some trials, we have learned a great deal more than if our robot hadn't acted up, and we have eleminated some areas that our robot could go wrong in the competition.

The second mission we completed was pushing the dirt trap under the Unstainable Fabric. We have had great success with that one and have brought it back to base. With the two missions we have completed so far, we have fifty five points. (Pretty good for just two missions, considering that the highest score we got in our first year was a whopping total of ninety points.) After dinner, we hope to work on the Bucky Ball mission, and the Nanotip/Atom Manipulation/Unstainable Fabric combination.

I Hope we do well.

Originally posted on The LEGO Mountaineers web site

Today has been a major robot day

Amy — Thu, 26 Oct 2006 23:14:00 -0700

A few days ago, Amy, Faith and I narrowed down our missions and tested all of them. Before Faith left, we had begun to discuss the best way to rebuild our robot's arm; we finally decided to make a design similar to the 2004 robot's.

What made this arm both unique and ideal is that it was designed to do many functions in one maneuver. We didn't have to take off or put on any attachments. This bought us a lot of time in the competition and it allowed us to get more points.

This afternoon Amy and I printed out the best picture that we had that showed all of the features of this arm, and set to work. In the end our arm looked nothing like the original, but it served our purpose.

Our arm can easily turn any direction, yet it has a lock that will lock it into place to prevent it from moving during the mission. Unlike the original one that we had used during the testing stage, our arm was very short and compact, but it was incredibly strong. Our arm can lift the stuck nanotip, dump the buckeyball into the bone, and knock the white molecules off of the table, all by either moving up or down.

After much testing we finally got it just the way we wanted it and were able to successively complete the buckeyball mission. This is a big step to finishing the competition robot. Our goal is to try to complete both our skit, and the robot within the next week to try to have time to practice.

We have sixteen days until our first competition and I am so excited! It looks like we are finally moving forward.

Originally posted on The LEGO Mountaineers web site

The Mountaineers have just decided 2 things

Emily — Tue, 24 Oct 2006 21:37:00 -0700

We had a team meeting tonight. It Has Been Decided

1. We Chose our skit.

2. We Chose Our Kind of robot (RCX or NXT).

Now we decide which missions We do.
So-far we chose:

The Stuck Nanotip
The Dump Truck
The Bone Mission
The Unstainable fabric
Pizza Molecules
And, The Individual atom Manipulation.

Amy and Wendy are busy working on Research.

We will tell you about that in the next Blog Post.

Emily Mack
The LEGO mountaineers

Originally posted on The LEGO Mountaineers web site

One Little, Two Little, Three Little Robots...

Amy — Sat, 21 Oct 2006 21:45:00 -0700

Well, our coach has been known to do some pretty interesting things before to get us thinking, and this is one of them. He had originally assigned us the job of running through every mission for fifteen minutes to test out the newly built robot (we had used some of our sponsor money to buy a second NXT kit of parts so that we could have two different designs to test at the same time).

After completing this task, he gave us a list of steps to follow. Here is what we came up with.

I. Analyze each mission, comment on observations, challenges encountered and next actions to take

This we did in our fifteen minute encounter.

II. Mission summary

Coach asked us to write a blog entry on our experiences, both for the reader's benefit and to cause us to really think through what we have learned.

III. Team Discussion

This is where we got together and discussed what we learned, what changes we needed to make, and to discuss new strategies.

IV. Strategy based on missions (What is our current strategy as of Today?)

This particular step was actually many steps put together to form a next action. Here, we had to first decide what missions we would do and wouldn't do. We also had to agree upon the order on which we would base our strategy. We had to be able to explain why we chose this particular order and how it would best help the team.

We then had to structure the missions so that if we needed to attach or pull anything off we could do so at the beginning and not have to fiddle with pieces in the middle of the competition.

After that, we re-visited the missions we had chosen and looked at the amount of points and the possible time it would take. If we had any doubts, we would research it and evaluate it. (Fortunately, we all felt really good about our decisions)

After making all the decisions we needed about each mission, we sat down and discussed what changes needed to take place.

V. Clone robot and make improvements

In this step, we took apart the original robot and cloned our newest robot. Therefore, we would end up with a clone that we could test our changes without risking damaging our original robot.

We're are now testing to see if we were successful in making an exact clone. I can't wait to see how it will turn out.

Originally posted on The LEGO Mountaineers web site

We’re on a roll!

Wendy — Sat, 21 Oct 2006 21:40:00 -0700

After reviewing our notes from the fifteen minute survey of each mission, our coach gave us a list of next actions that we needed to accomplish to work on our robot. One of the things that we had to do was to read over the several missions, talk about each one, choose the missions that we wanted to do, and to put them in order of execution. With our former team member, Faith Steele assisting, we narrowed down our options of the nine missions and chose the seven missions that we will target.

We have chosen the seven missions closest to the base because they are easier to finish, give more points, and we know that we can complete them because of the various tests that we have done. These missions are the Smell, Manipulate Individual Atoms, Nanotube Strength, pushing the dirt trap to the Unstainable Fabric, the Unstick Nanotip, the Nano Elevator, the Unstainable Fabric , and Smart Medicine. We have decided to combine several of the misssions in order to complete all of them.

Amy, Faith, and I have calculated that if we complete all of these missions perfectly we would get 320 points. Even though it is extremely unlikely that this will happen, if we cut it in half it is still a great competition. We are very excited about this decision. Our next step is to clone our robot and to make the changes that we need.

Originally posted on The LEGO Mountaineers web site

Test Result: Smell

Wendy — Sat, 21 Oct 2006 21:30:00 -0700

We have been able to successfully knock the pizza scent molecules onto the LEGO man's nose. We have not, however been able to transport the robot back to base.
Test Name: Smell
What we Learned: We learned that the molecules can successfully be transported and that a collapsable arm is the best way to accomplish it.
Challenges: Our robot is still having the turning problem that affects this mission. However it is not affected as drastically as the others.
Next Action: Fix the turn and get the robot back to the base.

Originally posted on The LEGO Mountaineers web site

Test Result: Unstainable Fabric

Wendy — Sat, 21 Oct 2006 21:00:00 -0700

We have successfully been able to push the tray to the basket. Without pushing the molecules out of the bucket we will receive 39 points. We have learned that our robot can go impeccably strait until we begin to turn. The only thing we will need to add to the program is to push the dumper.
Test Name: Unstainable Fabric
What we Learned: Our robot can go in a straigt line without going off track
Challenges: Our robot can easily get caught
Next Action: Program it to push the button to dump the truck

Originally posted on The LEGO Mountaineers web site

Test Result: Individual Atom Manipulation

Wendy — Sat, 21 Oct 2006 20:40:00 -0700

We have successfully gotten the robot lined up perfectly with the table. The only thing we have to do now is to lower our arm and knock over the white "atom". Turning doesn't seem to be a problem right now, although our turns are so minimal that we really can't base our observations on that.
Test Name: Individual Atom Manipulation
What we Learned: Our arm is too long to successfully knock the white atoms off without bumping the red atoms
Challenges: Our robot needs to turn precisely in order to be aligned for this mission
Next Action: Solve the turning problem and fix the arm

Originally posted on The LEGO Mountaineers web site

Test Result: Self Assembly

Wendy — Sat, 21 Oct 2006 20:22:00 -0700

We are having major problems with the turns that are so vital to complete this mission. One of the weird things is that this has occurred with all of the five robots that we have built with the NXT. We are going to talk to our coach about the possibility of redesigning our robot.
Test Name: Self Assembly
What we Learned: The self assembly is at an odd angle so that the easiest way would be to go around the bone in order to get perfectly aligned. Our arm is the perfect length to complete this mission
Challenges: Unfortunately this approach requires a lot of turns which we are still having trouble with
Next Action: Solve the challenge of turning

Originally posted on The LEGO Mountaineers web site

Test Result: Molecular Motor

Wendy — Sat, 21 Oct 2006 20:00:00 -0700

We've had several ideas we've been testing for the Molecular Motor. Unfortunately, we have had major problems turning, especially because this mission is so far away from base. We have figured out that one of our turning problems is that our board was warped and uneven. This has fixed it a little bit but we still have a problem on our hands. One possibility of the turning is that we have too much weight on the front. We hope to complete this mission soon and get on to other missions.
Test Name: Molecular Motor
What we Learned: The molecular motor is at an odd angle so that either way we approach it we have an interesting challenge to solve.
Challenges: We are still having trouble with the turn, our arm is too long for this mission.
Next Action: Figure out why our robot is turning funny and restructure the arm to solve this mission

Originally posted on The LEGO Mountaineers web site

Test Result: Space Elevator

Wendy — Sat, 21 Oct 2006 19:44:00 -0700

At this point in our testing, our friend and former team member Faith lent a helping hand. With her help, we successfully raised the elevator. Unfortunately our old friend the turning problem is back. Our next action is to find out why our robot is turning.
Test Name: Elevator
What we Learned: Our robot need a way to successfully push the button in order to keep from getting caught on the button.
Challenges: Our robot didn't turn precisely every time.
Next Action: Figure out why it isn't turning precisely

Originally posted on The LEGO Mountaineers web site

Test Result: Buckyball In Bone

Wendy — Sat, 21 Oct 2006 19:30:00 -0700

We were able to successfully get the buckeyball into the bone three of the times that we tried it. Right now our only problem is that the ball sometimes gets trapped in the arm and can't be released. We need to work on this a little more to fine tune it. Our Next Action would be to find a way to successfully carry and dump the ball.
Test Name: Buckeyball in Bone
What we Learned: Our arm, or the attachment for our arm, is too low to successfully dump the buckeyball without getting caught.
Challenges: It is incredibly hard to aim the robot, we need to program it in such a way that we can use one of the markers provided.
Next Action: Either shorten the arm or move the tray.

Originally posted on The LEGO Mountaineers web site

Test Result: Unstick Nanotip

Wendy — Sat, 21 Oct 2006 19:12:00 -0700

Our next test involved the stuck nanotip. After extensive amount of experimenting and documenting our tests, we concluded that our arm was not strong enough to lift the nanotip. This is probably because the arm is incredibly long to serve in the other missions. To complete this mission, we will have to shorten our arm. One good thing is that we seemed to have corrected our problem of veering to the left. This was a recurring problem we had in our previous robot. Our next action is to either strengthen or shorten our arm.
Test Name: Unstick Nanotip
What we Learned: Our arm is both too long and too weak to complete this mission.
Challenges: We need to find a way to shorten or strengthen our arm without affecting the other missions.
Next Action: Build a stronger attachment for the arm.

Originally posted on The LEGO Mountaineers web site

Test Result: Nanotube Strength

Wendy — Sat, 21 Oct 2006 18:56:00 -0700

The first mission we tested was the Nanotube Strength. We were able to attach a test bumper and we have been able to successfully move the truck onto the platform. Our timer rang before we were able to complete the mission, but we did get a good idea on ways to successfully knock the button. If we used the arm, as in one of our ideas, we would have to make it longer and stronger.
Test Name: Nanotube Strength Test
What we Learned: We learned that this robot is able to support various attachments that we can use to complete this mission without attaching or detaching the pieces
Challenges: Our bumper must be high enough that it doesn't get caught on the platform or the wheels of the dumptruck, but it must be low enough that it will hit the truck. It needs to be really strong. We need to find a way to attach a second bumper that we can use to hit the button that we don't need to attach or detach.
Next Action: Push the button to lift the platform and truck.

Originally posted on The LEGO Mountaineers web site

Only fifteen minutes to test our robot

Wendy — Sat, 21 Oct 2006 18:52:00 -0700

Our coach gave us fifteen minutes to figure out how to solve each mission...let me explain. Our coach wanted us to get a little experience on solving each mission so that we could be well equipped on which missions to focus our attention on solving for the competition. This means that we would go as far as we could go on the mission for fifteen minutes. When the timer rang, even if we hadn't finished, we would go on to the next mission. This way, even though we hadn't completely solved the mission, we would at least know what worked and what didn't. If we had to change our robot in any way we would know what to leave and what to fix.

Originally posted on The LEGO Mountaineers web site

We’ve got the robot design specifics

Wendy — Thu, 19 Oct 2006 12:16:00 -0700

Yesterday, after many days of experimentation, we finally narrowed down the features that we want for our robot. Our coach helped us build a prototype for an idea, and we’ve been testing it. Considering the four robots that we have built with the NXT kits, we have a pretty clear picture of what we want our robot to do; now all we have to do is build and program.

Our list is split into two parts, necessary and optional. The items on the necessary list are things we have proven to work the best or that we need. The items on optional are things we believe would make our robot work better, but we haven’t proven or tested it yet. Here is the list that we have come up with:

Necessary

The robot’s weight must be evenly dispersed between the right and the left side
We must have the least amount of friction on the front wheels
Most of the weight should be born by the back wheels
The NXT should be at a slight angle to make it easier to see the screen
The arm should be strong enough to bear the weight of the magnet and bar
The robot should be tall enough to reach the table with ease
The robot should be thin enough to fit in between the bone and the magnet
Our robot should have plenty of room for attachments
Our robot should have the least amount (If any) of attachable or detachable pieces

Optional

The arm can swivel around to do missions on all sides
Sensors?

We are very excited to finally have a clearer view on what our robot needs to accomplish and how we will accomplish it. Today we plan to use our second NXT kit to build an experimental robot that will fit these limits.

Originally posted on The LEGO Mountaineers web site

Mission 9: Space Elevator

Amy — Wed, 18 Oct 2006 17:59:00 -0700

This space elevator is a team effort. No, not the individual teams, but the two teams at each of the two tables. Each side's robot has to push their lever to make the elevator go up and down. The risk is the possibility of your robot getting caught on the lever.

This mission is worth forty points.

Originally posted on The LEGO Mountaineers web site

Mission 8: Molecular Motor

Amy — Wed, 18 Oct 2006 17:58:00 -0700

In this mission, we have to deliver an ATP (adenosine triphosphate) molecule into the box on the molecular motor. If put in properly, the molecular motor should start up and release the battery, but we get the forty points even if the motor doesn't start up.

Originally posted on The LEGO Mountaineers web site

Mission 7: Nanotube Strength

Amy — Wed, 18 Oct 2006 17:57:00 -0700

Our goal here is to push a miniature dump truck onto a platform. This, when accomplished, is worth twenty points. If the team wants to go for more points, the second half to this mission is to push a lever and lift the platform and dump truck into the air. When this task is accomplished, the team will get an additional twenty points.

Originally posted on The LEGO Mountaineers web site

Mission 6: Smart Medicine

Amy — Wed, 18 Oct 2006 17:56:00 -0700

This mission is a brain teaser for competing teams. The robot has to get medicine (buckyball) into the broken part of a LEGO bone. This is tricky because the ball can bounce out easily and the target for the medicine is extremely narrow. Perhaps the people who designed this competition sympathized with us on this certain mission for the prize is fifty points! This is the most of any individual mission on the field!

Originally posted on The LEGO Mountaineers web site

Mission 5: Self Assembly

Amy — Wed, 18 Oct 2006 17:55:00 -0700

Although in a remote location at the end of the field, this particular mission is a relatively easy mission to accomplish. All that is needed is for the robot to knock the pole back and the individual pieces will fall over and assemble themselves. The complications are that the pole is at a difficult angle that requires precise movement of the robot.

This mission is worth thirty points.

Originally posted on The LEGO Mountaineers web site

Mission 4: Atomic Force Microscopy

Amy — Wed, 18 Oct 2006 17:54:00 -0700

Our goal in this mission is to unstick the stuck LEGO nanotip. This takes a lot of skill to accomplish. For one thing, the space in which you are given is incredibly narrow. You have to have precise aiming and programming to accomplish this mission. Even worse, the nanotip, which is connected by magnets, is difficult to lift and requires a strong arm. Unfortunately, it isn't uncommon for the robot to flip over while attempting to lift the nanotip. This accomplished, however, is worth forty points.

Originally posted on The LEGO Mountaineers web site

Mission 3: Stain-Resistant Fabric

Amy — Wed, 18 Oct 2006 17:53:00 -0700

This mission may very well be one of the hardest missions on the field. Here, we have a tray we have to push underneath the stain resistant fabric to catch the dirt (LEGOs) that will fall down. Then, our robot has to work itself around the back of the structure and push the trap full of dirt out. The dirt will then fall down and hopefully land in the tray. This second part of the mission is optional, but it is worth more points. The tray at it's mark is worth fifteen points. The dirt dumper, when empty, is worth fifteen points, and the dirt in the tray is worth five while the dirt on the table is worth three. The catch, however, is if at any time during the competition we have to grab our robot a dirt piece will be taken away and we wont get credit for that piece.

Hopefully, we won't have to grab our robot at all.

Originally posted on The LEGO Mountaineers web site

Mission 2: Smell

Amy — Wed, 18 Oct 2006 17:52:00 -0700

It's easy to get thrown off by the name of this wacky mission. Our goal is to push two pizza scent molecules onto a LEGO man's nose. No, not an actual LEGO man, this is just a huge picture of a LEGO character that is the area we want the molecules to end up. But it get's weirder. The LEGO man has no nose! Since this is the case, we have to push the molecules anywhere on his face and neck. This shouldn't be too difficult a mission to solve because there is a lot of space in which to maneuver.

This mission is worth five points for each molecule off the paper plate and ten points for each molecule on the face or neck.

Originally posted on The LEGO Mountaineers web site

Mission 1: Individual Atom Manipulation

Amy — Wed, 18 Oct 2006 17:51:00 -0700

This is a tricky mission to accomplish. The goal is to move one or more of the white LEGOs off the table without knocking off a single red LEGO. If we do end up knocking a red LEGO we won't get any points, we only get points for the white LEGOs. But wait, it gets even trickier. The table is not securely fastened down, in fact, it is designed to wobble and bounce making it even harder for us to move the "atoms". We plan to accomplish this task, however, by positioning our arm to be just above the red atoms, to avoid hitting them, but low enough to tap the white atom off the table. This mission is worth thirty points if you get less than three.

If you knock three or more white atoms off you get forty points.

Originally posted on The LEGO Mountaineers web site

Only Three Weeks To Go!

Amy — Tue, 17 Oct 2006 19:58:00 -0700

With our deadline drawing rapidly to a close, we have a lot yet to accomplish. First of all, our robot design wasn't as good as we thought. Every time we added to the robot, it completely screwed up our programs and created a drag on the robot. Fortunately, our coach came up and presented some ideas on how to re-build the robot to make it more compact and evenly balanced. We decided to use a portion of our sponsor money to buy a second NXT kit of parts that will allow us to experiment more freely and built a secondary robot for backup.

With that on the way, we needed to focus on our research project. Wendy and I had to attend a class today at Masters College so we thought that we would come up with a few ideas for our project and talk to our professor after class. What was intended to be a five minute discussion quickly turned into a forty-five minute one. Dr. Englin, our professor, graciously spent this time to help us rule out ideas and to form and improve new ones. Originally, we had thought of using a nano sized robot to somehow get inside an unborn baby and to cure it of down-syndrome. Although this is a great idea, Dr. Englin informed us that it would be extremely hard and would risk harming the baby more. Some areas he thought nanotechnology could be used in, however, are hearing loss, blindness, and pinched nerves. These ideas are intriguing and would make for some great research projects. We hope to study these fields in the next couple of days to see if it would be plausible to build a robot to solve some of these problems. We are already bouncing around ideas of how we would solve them.

We can't wait for the upcoming competitions!

Originally posted on The LEGO Mountaineers web site

Which One To Choose?

Wendy — Tue, 17 Oct 2006 19:52:00 -0700

Today, Amy and I presented our biology professor a few of the ideas we had formulated for our research project and asked for his input. Originally we had thought about cancer research and that had been one of our main focuses. Unfortunately that is one of the most prominently suggested ideas in some of the research sites they provided, and more than likely it would be a common problem for many of the other teams.

Another thought that we had was creating a robot using nanotechnology that would alter the DNA of unborn Down's Syndrome babies. After talking to Dr. Englin, our professor, we realized what a massive undertaking that would be. One of the main reasons is that by the time we can recognize that the unborn baby has Down's Syndrome, there are already thousands of the cells with the faulty DNA in the infant's body. The procedure could also be life threatening.

Some of the ideas Dr. Englin suggested was designing a robot to repair the optic nerve, and creating a robot to repair the muscles which have separated from the bones of the ear to cure hearing loss. Finally, he suggested inventing a robot that could help fix pinched Sciatic nerves by using a laser to drill a slightly larger hole in the bone in order to give the nerve a little more flexibility.

I'm not quite sure which one, if any, we will choose, we're probably going to need a little more research before making an adequate choice.

Originally posted on The LEGO Mountaineers web site

To succeed, fail often - like Thomas Edison

Wendy — Sat, 14 Oct 2006 19:29:00 -0700

We have been trying various methods of solving the missions. We have completed the Nanotube Strength,(which is a mission where we push a truck onto a platform and raise it) Separate Nanotip mission, (where our robot has to separate two magnets) and the Individual Atom Manipulation, (in which our robot has to knock as many white pegs off of a moving table, without knocking off any reds). With this completed we are able to successively get 134 points, although we sometimes got lucky and received 144 points.

For the last two days Amy and I have been working hard to complete a fourth mission. I've felt rather like Thomas Edison inventing the light bulb, we've constantly been coming up with, building, trying, and discarding new ideas. Unfortunately one of our attempts messed up some of our other programs and tomorrow we will have to fix it so that we can continue our experiments.

I hope that we will be able to finish our robot and presentation within the three-week deadline we have until our first competition.

Originally posted on The LEGO Mountaineers web site