Video tutorials

Throwing/Shooting is a common challenge in FIRST LEGO League competitions and in this robotics video tutorial we are demonstrating an attachment that you can use to throw/shoot a ball. There have been missions for throwing balls like in bawling, or like in soccer/football. The attachment that we use relies on the properties of the plastics used for the LEGO MINDSTORMS Robot Inventor 51515 set - it bends and it throws.

In this short animation we demonstrate how the LEGO Mindstorms Robot Inventor Distance sensors could be attached to the robot and then use to stop at distance from a wall. This wall could be the border of the field or another mission model. We need an attachment, we need a sensor and we need the robot. In the live video in the lesson we enter into more details and explanations of how the sensor is used. Programs for the distance sensor are provided in the lesson and in the LEGO Mindstorms Robot Inventor Programming course we enter into more details about how to program the distance sensor

This animation demonstrates the principle of aligning to a line with two color sensors and a LEGO Mindstorms Robot Inventor robot. This is a useful concept for FIRST LEGO League competitions where you want to know exactly where you are on the field and to achieve consistent behavior. In the course lesson you will also find a live video tutorial where we enter into more details about aligning. We align the robot to a line by moving both sensors slowly until they both see a black line. When one of them sees the line we move only the other. At the end we return the first sensor back.

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.

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 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.

This is the first part of accomplishing M03 Energy Storage with the Kriket Box Robot. In this tutorial we show how to Drop the energy units in the storage. The second part will focus more on how do we pull the element from below the energy storage.

In this video tutorial, the MiniBox box robot is accomplishing M02 and M15 of the FIRST LEGO League 2023-2024 MASTERPIECE Challenge robotics competition. This robot is a LEGO Education SPIKE Prime robot that uses a detachable attachment and rubber band mechanism to achieve its goals.

When the robot presses down the mission model, it activates the detachable attachment which disconnects from the robot and triggers the rubber band mechanism, allowing it to collect the minifigure.

We know this attachment may seem a bit complex, but after a few tries, you'll definitely enjoy working with it!

There is no block for programming the Ultrasonic Sensor in the retail version of the LEGO Mindstorms EV3 software. In this video tutorial we will show you how you can download & import such blocks in order to use the sensor.

An interesting question that has arise is whether we can use the LEGO Mindstorms EV3-G Software to program the NXT brick. In this episode we will go through the blocks from the EV3-G Software and see which works with the NXT Hardware and which does not.

This video tutorial reviews the EV3 Gyro Sensor and the HiTechnic Gyro Sensor for the LEGO Mindstorms NXT robotics Kit. We compare the two sensors and demonstrate them in action.

As an extension to the previous video we talk about the Hi Technic Color Sensor again.

Experiment with moving the robot in different geometrical figures. The tasks could be used in STEM classes for introducing students to geometry and math. 

We are programming this strange construction to move in a square. This is a basic task, but it is worth doing for a robot with motors placed in different directions.

The after season review continues. No. We are not publishing a single solution for the next season before it is over, but let's learn from the previous season. The current tutorial is about three missions at once on a single run with the robot. Most FIRST LEGO League teams try to accomplish one-two missions on a single run out of the base, and three is really what makes the difference