Video tutorials -

• FIRST LEGO League

In this video tutorial we accomplish the FIRST LEGO League 2022-2023 SUPER POWERED mission called M04 Solar Farm. We use the chain monster box robot along with a passive attachment that helps us collect 3 of the energy units. The interesting thing about the mission is the collection of the units, of course, but also the way this robot manoeuvres when there is not enough space. It aligns to the lines, it uses the color and motion sensors. Really advance way to align the robot.

This is a 10 out of 10 video tutorial where we demonstrate the consistency and reliability of a LEGO Education SPIKE Prime Active attachment connected to the motors of the robot. The goal of this attachment is to accomplish the Bridge mission where we have to push both parts of the bridge and bring them down to connect them. We use some line following.

In this video tutorial, we accomplish a FIRST LEGO League mission called The Bridge. We demonstrate how to use a really simple active attachment where the goal of the mission is to push down both parts of the bridge. We do not enter into the programming and we leave it up to you as an exercise.

In this tutorial we present a way to align your robot to a black line. Go through common difficulties, that the teams face, when they need to align their robot, and provide a solution for them.

This tutorial explains the use of motion and light/color sensors to accomplish a complex mission split into three parts. It gets into detail about how we keep a straight line with the motion sensor, follow a line with the color sensors, and transition between different parts of the program by aligning and detecting lines with the sensor. The goal is to get to a reliable and consistent behavior of the robot. On top of that, it is configurable, as we've left a few parameters that could be set to configure the behavior for a specific robot, venue, lighting, battery level, and wheels friction.

Continuing with the Proportional algorithm for following lines. Smooth and stable this is the first part of the PID.

Last part of the series. The final touch of the program makes sure that it works and is following the line with the LEGO Mindstorms EV3 Color Sensor in a smooth and fast way. 

In this video tutorial we take a next step in programming reliable and consistent robots and this is to learn how to stop at a second intersection. We need this because most of the time when we want to reach a mission model on a robotics competition field, the model will be located away from us and we must use all kind of technique to reach it. In this tutorial - we stop at a second intersection.

In this video tutorial we demonstrate a really important concept for FIRST LEGO League competitions - you position the robot on the field with depending on timers and rotations. The issue with moving the robot for 10 seconds and then stopping is that every time it is in a different location. Same for rotations. The wheels will slip, the battery will change, something will happen and the robot will not be in the same place every time. This is not consistent and reliable.

In this video tutorial we show how you can build robots that position on the field consistently and reliably by following and line and then aligning to a line. We also demonstrate the concept of "double align" which is quite powerful and even if there were some mistakes they will be handled.

We extract the Proportional Line Following algorithm into a new block with parameters. This allows us to experiment with the Threshold, Constant Speed and Relaxation Coefficient. You can now easily use the block in you other programs without having to implement it. 

This is one of the last tutorials in the LEGO Education SPIKE Prime programming for Competitions course and it demonstrates what we've all been waiting for - how to reach a mission model from base in a reliable and consistent way when the mission model is on the other end of the field. Naturally what we use are all the different concepts that we've learned in the course and the tutorial is more advanced than the other so if anything is not clear take a look also at the different tutorials an concepts in the course.

We list the number of decisions that the robot is making while following the line. Then, we group them and decide on the number of sensors to be used.

In this video lesson I will show you how to follow a black line using just one sensor, but fast enough so that you could use it during any robotics competition without wasting any time.

We follow a line. We start from the Smooth Proportional Line Following program and modify it a little for this program. We follow the line with the middle sensor attached on port 2. 

This robot has a color sensor and this sensor is used for following lines. Additional Mindstorms EV3 sensors could be place on the robot, like a Gyro sensor or a second Color sensor.

How do you detect a cross-section and move from following the main line to following the crossing line. In this series of video tutorials we are starting with a very simple solution that could work in most of the cases. It is especially useful for the FIRST LEGO League Trash Trek competition where there is such a section.

It's inevitable. While following this gapped line we would reach a gap. The robot must somehow understand that there is a gap and must make a decision on what to do. For detecting the gap we use the Rotation Sensor. Not the most popular, but very convenient in many cases. Check out the video.

We've detected the gap. It's time to move over it. This is difficult because we have to detect where the line is after the 0.1 meters gap on the line following field.

Next important state is Turn Right with our robot. This happens when we detect a line on the right. 

This second part continues with importing two previously developed in Episode 53 blocks into our program. With them we can for align to lines. We program the robot to align to the cross line and start following it.

Next state in our state machine programming pattern is the "Turn Left" state and the corresponding behaviour.

We can Turn Right. We can Turn Left. How do we decide which way to go if there are lines both to the left and to the right. Check out the video.

All worked as expected, up until know because the robot got lost. This happens when we turn right and the line does not continue to the right. Now the robot must somehow understand that it is "lost" and escape.

We discuss the state of "Lost" and the different ways we could escape this state. We also build the next step of our State machine programming pattern where the next state is determined by the previous state.

In this tutorial, we would implement a program that finds the minimum and maximum value detected by the sensor and stores this two values in an array.

The final video from the course. The robot escapes the state where it is lost. This happens if it can not continue in any direction.