You've Got Mail !

CyberKids Robotics is hosting a National Robotics Competition this summer to give teams the opportunity to compete on a national stage and get some extra practice in for the upcoming FLL Robotics season.

You've Got Mail !
National Robotics Competition

CyberKids Robotics is a non-profit education company dedicated to improving the STEM education of students in North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia through our exciting robotics competition program. CyberKids Robotics is hosting a National Robotics Competition called "You've Got Mail!". The theme of this competition will be helping the Postal Service process and deliver the mail using a LEGO Mindstorms NXT robot of your design.

For this competition, your robotics team cannot have more than six team members. All team members must be between the ages of 9 and 14 as of June 1, 2010. All construction, programming and robot execution must be performed by the registered robotics team members.

After registering your team, you will receive a "You've Got Mail !" competition mat, field setup kit and a set of detailed rules and regulations for the competition.

Each team's robot must be built entirely out of LEGO elements, and must be controlled by LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT elements. Only one LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT Intelligent Brick is allowed for each robot. All robots must be programmed with LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT-G.

Each team will have until midnight on August 16, 2010 to complete all building and programming and submit a video of their robot completing as many "You've Got Mail !" missions as possible within two minutes and thirty seconds. The robotics team accumulating the most points in the shortest amount of time....WINS!

Each robotics team must also submit a "no longer than five minute" video explaining the design of their robot, the team's strategy in solving the "You've Got Mail !" missions and each team member must explain their primary role for this competition.

The registration for the You've Got Mail ! National Robotics Competition is $115.00 per team.

Team Registration Fee $35.00
Competition Mat & Field Setup Kit $70.00
Shipping and Handling $10.00

Registration is limited to the first 1,000 teams. Register early so your team can have a "head start" on the competition. Competition mats and field setup kits will be shipped in the order of registration. Please allow 5 to 7 days for the delivery of your competition mat and field setup kit.

To register, click on the link below :

http://events.constantcontact.com/register/event?oeidk=a07e2wpnnphdfd35127

If you have more than one robotics team, register your first team online to get the competition mat and field setup kit shipped to you then call 828-292-2393 to register each additional team for only the $35.00 Team Registration Fee.

The Top Ten teams in the You've Got Mail ! National Robotics Competition will receive prizes.

Each team member on the Championship Team will receive a new LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT kit.

The First, Second and Third place teams will receive a free registration and field setup kit for the upcoming FIRST Lego League Body Forward robotics competition.

If you have questions, please e-mail us at cyberkids@charter.net or call 828-292-2393.

Good Luck !

Moonbots

Excellent news for kids 9 and up, the Moonbots competition has lowered its age requirement from 13 to 9! I guess they realized, that since FLL is 9 to 14, setting the age requirement to 13 was too limiting.

So dust of your Mindstorm robot, and get ready for a fun challenge while you are waiting between your FLL season! All you need is one adult and 3-5 kids to start a team.

This challenge is basically a simulated lunar exploration, similar to those required to win the $30 million Google Lunar X PRIZE, except it is using the Lego Mindstorm robot plus video essays, team website and running the Robot game through a Live Webcast!

The competition has two phases, phase one requires your robot design documented in digital form and showing off your creativity and video blogging. All this must be done before May 28 (only 22 more days left!). From Phase one, 20 winners will be selected to participate in phase two. The 20 winners selected from phase one, each team will get a robot kit and the game table pieces so they can participate in the game challenge. During Phase two the 20 teams are also required to upload video blogging (min. once a week)from the robot as it explores the moon! Near the end of phase 2, the teams will run the robot game through a live webcast. The robot game round is 3 minutes long, and a max of 350 points can be scored on the game table, but you only get ONE shot at it.

The main difference between this game and the FLL game is that you have to mount a video camera onto your robot, and have your robot take picture or video while it is on a mission. Also, sensor wise, you have a wider selection of different sensors that you can use, as long as it is from LEGO or HiTechnic !

The grand prize is a free trip (3 days/2 nights) for the team to visit the Lego Campus in Denmark, plus FIRST team registrations for the next season.

For more info, visit www.moonbots.org

Robot in action

Here is a clip of our team performing on the game table at the NYC citywide chapionship - Javits Center
Out team is the ones in green shirts, watch our great cheering squad's exciting cheers.


or goto http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZIYp6F_8RF4

Sunday March 14, 2010 - Javits Center

Come cheer for the Forest Hills Lego Club teams this Sunday, March 14 at the Javits Center (9:00 - 3:30)
We have three FLL teams competing in the First Lego League NYC Citywide Championship Tournament.
The event is Free and open to the public. Come see what Lego Robotics is all about!

Pit 34 - Robo Squad
Pit 35 - Mindstorm Mechanics
Pit 76 - Planetary Forces

Jacob Javits Convention Center
655 West 34th Street
New York, NY 10001

Need directions to the venue? Click here
For parking information Click here
For public transportation information Click here

How to keep count as the light sensor passes 3 black lines

Click here for the video

One of my team member has decided that he needs 2 light sensors, and one of the light sensor will follow the black line,and the 2nd sensor, will count the intersecting black lines, and at the 3rd black line he will stop the robot and do something else.
So the question is how do you program the robot to keep count on the sensor information.
Well, here is a very good video tutorial that explains exactly this condition.
simply substitute touch sensor for light sensor, and change the control value from 10 to 3.

EWeek at NJ Liberty Science Center

The 3rd annual Liberty Science Center Engineers Week Exhibition hosted by the FIRST LEGO League (FLL) team Landroids #109 will be held on President’s Day, Monday, February 15, 2010, 9 AM – 4 PM.

Each year, the top New Jersey FIRST LEGO League teams are invited to gather as volunteers for a day of robot demonstration and research project presentation to 3,500 to 4,000 visitors.

This year, the event will also include the FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC) and the Jr. FIRST LEGO League (Jr. FLL), forming a link between all three divisions, spanning from kindergarten to the high school level. Separate programming presentations offered by Storming Robots and LEGO models will also be on display. It will be a fun robotics day!

This LSC exhibition is a non-competitive, networking opportunity for the NJ teams. It is also a wonderful opportunity for parents and children who are interested in getting involved to see the robots up-close, and be able to chat with the teams and the coaches for more information.

This event showcases the top NJ teams from the 2009/10 season. This year will also include representative teams from the FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC) and Jr. FIRST LEGO League (Jr.FLL).

Participating Team List (will continue be updated):

Morning Session (9 AM – 12:30 PM)
FLL #4832 The Atoms Family (NJ State 1st place Champions Award)
FLL #3691 HMS Platinum (NJ State 1st place Robot Performance Award)
FLL #4104 Yobotics (NJ State 3rd place Robot Design Award)
Jr.FLL #103 Spongebots (NJ State Complexity and Decoration Award)
FTC # 3539 Say Watt? (NJ Snow Day Srcimmage Inspire Award & Winning Alliance)

Afternoon Session (12:30 PM – 4:00 PM)
FLL #109 Landroids (NJ State 1st place Robot Design Award)
FLL #4764 Bergen Bees (NJ State 2nd Place Project Award)
Jr. FLL #465 Special Lego Builder


Location:
Liberty Science Center
222 Jersey City Boulevard * Jersey City, NJ * 07305

Videos of FLL Smart Move 400 Points

Here is a collection of videos of different teams that got 400 points this year. Some of them are very cleverly designed and creative such as shooting darts at axis markers. And others had built huge multi-part machines which seem overly complicated and unnecessary.