Servo - May 2009

LEGO In Schools

of the ring, ranging in size from LEGO Bricks to soda cans as quickly as possible. While the length of a round is two minutes, the goal of the competition is to knock all objects outside of the ring in the shortest amount of time.

LEGO Drag Racing

The object of this event is simple: create a robot that will race down the course at a high speed and outpace your competitors. While there are certain programming requirements (robots must wait five seconds after the “RUN” button is pressed before moving down the course), this competition is primarily an engineering challenge. It offers an excellent opportunity to learn about gear ratios and weight efficiency. The fastest (and often the lightest) robot will win the race.

LEGO Shot Put

LEGO Shot Put is an event that will challenge competitors in both engineering and programming ability. The competing robot must navigate itself along a four foot black line towards the shot put ring, and entirely into the ring. At that point, the robot must pause for several seconds to allow judges to inspect the robot’s positioning and ensure that no part of the robot extends beyond the edge of the ring. Finally, the robot turns 90 degrees to face

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the landing zone and launches a ping pong ball as far as possible. One point is awarded for every centimeter the ball flies before hitting the ground for the first time. Additionally, two points are taken away if the robot does not pause for an adequate amount of time (approx. five seconds) for the judges to inspect its positioning prior to launching the ball. The LEGO Shot Put event is an excellent event for all skill levels as it’s often the most creative design that wins, not the most complex.

LEGO Magellan

Teams must design a robot to navigate a five foot by five foot grid from one corner to the other. Along the way, the robot must enter and exit a green box in the center of the course from the one “open” side (three of the four sides of the green box have black tape along them; the one that doesn’t is considered the “open” side). The goal is to complete the course in the shortest amount of time. An additional time bonus is awarded to competitors who trigger the release mechanism inside the green box, releasing a balloon.

LEGO Woots & Snarks

Not a competition for the faint of heart, LEGO Woots & Snarks is one of the most challenging competitions currently planned for LERN. At the beginning of each match, a team is assigned either “Woots” (black cans) or “Snarks” (white cans). The object is to program your robot to push your assigned cans out of the ring and to keep your opponents cans in the ring. The winning robots are often the ones who are able to capture opponents cans and carry them along with them, while pushing out their own color.

LEGO Freeform

This is another one of those competitions that offers a perfect opportunity for beginners to compete with seasoned veterans. The object of LEGO Freeform is simple: Create a robot or robots to complete a series of actions based on a theme announced prior to the competition. Examples of actions are spinning around, throwing an object, moving an object, etc. The goal of this event is to foster the creativity and imagination that LEGO is known for and LEGO Freeform is a perfect place for it.

FLL (First LEGO League)

If between LERN and RoboGames, you still aren’t getting enough LEGO robotics action, FIRST LEGO League is another incredible opportunity to hone in on your skills, and it happens every fall. FIRST LEGO League (or FLL) is a yearly international competition for ages 9-14. Every September, a