Robots!

Conor has had his first experience with programming robots, and he is hooked!  His school sponsors a First Lego League competition, and Conor joined one of the teams to design and build a robot that could complete various tasks.  They all had to use the same board, and this year the theme was robots that could provide assistance in the face of a natural disaster.  There were obstacles on the board, and a list of things that they could try to program their robot to do, such as moving downed power lines, clearing the way for rescue vehicles, moving people and supplies to safe locations etc. and they earned points based on how many of the tasks they could accomplish in a limited time.  The coaches were really nice, and the group worked well together, and Conor can't wait for the next opportunity to program!  In fact, he has joined an after school programming workshop where he is learning a programming language called Python.  Python is a reference to Monty Python, not the snake... the code is sprinkled with references that go completely over Conor's head... we may have to do a marathon viewing session soon!)  Conor has also only asked for one thing this Christmas, his very own MindStorm EV3, the latest version of the lego robot.  No problem, it's only $359! Yikes! 

 Here are some pictures from the competition a few weeks ago:

Conor's team

The whole team works together at the competition to get the robot set in the correct place before they let it go.  They can earn some points just by showing good teamwork, and making sure that all of the team members are involved in the entire process.

A separate part of the program requires each team to develop a new technology that is somehow related to the theme of the competition, this year it was natural disasters.  Glogo Robos came up with a floating pod that could be used in places that are at risk for typhoons.  Apparently these do exist, but Conor's team took the existing model and improved upon it by changing some of the components, making it more comfortable, and considering things like how it could be stored by the average person in the places most at risk (apartment sizes in Tokyo for instance are very small) and affordability for the average income in the same places.  They had to then make a presentation to a FLL panel explaining their inspiration, their design process and their ultimate product.