Video tutorials -

• FIRST LEGO League

In this first part we stop at an algorithm that is the base for following lines and explains the basic idea for the proportion. A must watch if you want to understand the robot at its behaviour. At the end the program still wont work so check out Part 2 and Part 3 for the final steps.  

In a competition environment like the FIRST LEGO League (FLL) or World Robotics Olympiad (WRO) the color sensor is more than useful. It makes positioning on the field quite easy and precise. 

We show the principle of solving the next FIRST LEGO League (FLL) Nature's Fury 2013 competition missions. Again, without any programs, but just the principles of using one attachment for most of the missions.

One attachment to rule them all...We have seen it and it works -> solving most of the competition models with only one attachment. In this video tutorial without programming we would walk you through the principles and methods of using a single attachment for most of the FIRST LEGO League competition models. One can learn alot from using as few parts as possible to solve as many missions as possible.

Previously we caught the Truck with two rubber bands. The next step was to lift it. For lifting we used the Medium LEGO Mindstorms EV3 motors. In this video we are extending the attachment so that we could catch also the Ambulance. In forth video we would explore how to release both vehicles after transporting them.

"The devil is in the details". We are improving the Rubber band attachment with a Flywheel by introducing a few small, but important modifications that make the whole robot attachment more stable and reliable. With the conclusion of the series this attachment could be used as a basis for some very interesting STEM demonstrations on energy accumulation and conservation.

Extend the previously build attachment for the FIRST LEGO League (FLL) Nature's Fury competition so that we can move the Truck and Ambulance up and down. 

One of the most interesting challenges in the series of FLL Competitions. Move a block and add additional floor on top of the block without damaging the construction. In this tutorial we would focus only this mission and we would achieve two movements with only one motor which makes the attachment quite powerful.

The way you move the robot is always imprecise. Don't TRY to fight with this. Programming motors for competitions like the FIRST LEGO League (FLL) or World Robotics Olympiad (WRO) is not very different from programming the motors in the STEM classes. But there are a few things you should have in mind. 

With this series of videos we are looking at FIRST LEGO League 2013 Nature's Fury competition and we are building a robot for accomplishing some of the mission. It would be a tutorial with at least four parts and we are building a complex attachment that could catch, lift and release different parts with only one motor and rubber bands. Not one, not two, but three movements with only one motor. 

The attachment is now so advanced that we can do two tasks at once with it in order to solve the FIRST LEGO League 2014 World Class Search Engine Mission.

The third part of the series the goal is to extend the robot attachment so that we could solve the second part of the FIRST LEGO League World Class mission challenge - to take the loop.

In this tutorial of the series we would get into more details on how the flywheel works, what's its purpose and how the whole attachment is triggered with the first rubber band.

Let's try to integrate more of the things we have learned into a single attachment. One that could accumulate energy, conserve it and use it at the appropriate time. All this because of a Rubber Band and a Flywheel - and if you don't know what a flywheel is you should definitely watch this videos 

The Department of "throwing" is ruled by rubber bands. Impulsive power release in a short amount of time. In this video we are building an attachment that throws a ball and accomplishes the FIRST LEGO League 2012 bowling competition.

Enchansing a previous attachment, but only this time we are solving the FIRST LEGO League 2012 Medicine mission. There is a lever and a rubber band. When the lever is released the rubber band activates the attachment. 

In Episode 58 we introduced you to an LEGO Mindstorms EV3 Modular robot. Mic Lowne wrote to us and had that robot remade, because it used too many blue lego pins and could not be build using one EV3 kit.

The attachment builds on previous episodes this time using two LEGO rubber bands. When a lever is released the rubber band exerts pressure on it and moves it in a circular motion. As an example we are solving the 2012 FIRST LEGO League, Senior Solutions, stove mission (which was quite interesting as a mission)

Pinless attachments are smart and quick and could make a big differences between two robot constructions. In this video we are sharing a nice idea for a pinless attachment placed below the robot.

Rubber bands in the LEGO Mindstorms sets are very handy when it comes to collecting objects, especially loops. The mechanism most of the time could work like this - an axle is pushed, a rubber band is released and a lever collects the loop. 

The previous rubber bands video showed a way to trigger the rubber band without a motor. This video gives one more idea on how to lift an axle and in this way release the rubber band. Use the idea for you LEGO Mindstorms robot constructions.

In part one we build an attachment that uses a rubber band to solve a competition challenge. The rubber band was released with the use of a motor. In this video we are removing the dependency on the motor and you could use the motor for other missions.

The robot attachment build in this tutorial gives an idea on how to release a rubber band at a specific moment using a motor. It's a simple, but yet powerful technique on using rubber bands. 

Rubber bands can be quite powerful. Based on several requests from you we are starting a series on using the LEGO Rubber bands available in the Mindstorms set. 

This time we stop on "Using the Right Senses" mission, or actually on how to solve the "Right Senses" mission without "Senses" (sensors). To achieve that we use the carabineer counstructed in one of the previous tutorials, of course after a small modification.

Here we continue examining FLL 2014 World Class missions. We show different ways, for putting the insert in place as well as taking the loop from the robotics arm. Some of them are quite specific, which reminds us, that you need to think out of the box, while solving the missions.

It has been a long road with the last 8 BigDaddy competition robots video tutorials, but we finally arrived at the Differential Lock.