Lego Coach

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March 2008 This Month

Coaching Robotics Robot Design Robot Mobility primer Competitions and Events 1 1 3 4

Resources for the Lego® Robotic Coach

This newsletter is for those coaches, both new and experienced that want to learn more about the engineering principles that teams apply to the design and construction of a robot. This newsletter will not include instructions how to build a complete robot. There are plenty of books available with detailed instructions to build all types of robots. What this newsletter will provide is practical applications of basic engineering principles. If a team bases the robot’s design on sound engineering concepts, the team will have greater success programming the robot to perform its missions.

So You Want to Coach Robotics...

Everyone loves robots. Everyone knows R2D2 and C3P0. However, not everyone knows how to build a robot. Certainly not everyone is familiar with the engineering and programming principles used to build a working robot. So why are you interested in robots? Most likely, you are a parent or teacher who has volunteered to lead a team of students in First LEGO® League (FLL) or similar organization. It is a fact that most coaches of FLL have little or no prior knowledge of robotics, or any kind of robots. Therefore, if your robot knowledge is limited, then you are not alone.

Robot Design

Most FLL missions require the robot to maneuver the competition table in a consistent and repeatable manner. If the robot travels, turns or performs any actions with a degree of variability then the team will not achieve consistent performance. There are two methods to minimize the effects of variability. The first is simply not relying upon preciseness to achieve results. This technique is easier said than done. To illustrate this point, let us talk about an example where the robot must go across the table and grasp an object in front of it. Typically, to do so, the robot would have to stop in front of the object +/-...