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LEGO Junior Robotics Competition This Weekend

Posted by Zonk on from the leggo-my-robot? dept.

Neuropol writes "CNN tells us our favorite locking building block company, LEGO, is hosting a Junior Robotics Competition in Atlanta, GA this weekend. The event expects to pit hundreds of grade schoolers ages 9-14 against each other in a 9 task Olympic Style face-off with each teams robot. Twelve year old Taylor offers 'NASA works with a lot of robots and when you build a robot you need to know what goes in it,' says Taylor. 'And when you're working with FIRST LEGO you have to figure that out -- how to set stuff where it needs to go.' While this is too young for most of us to participate in, it's great to see the attention being focused on such a potentially great generation of robotics developers."

5 of 73 comments (clear)

  1. Space Police. by Construct+X · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Though I do like the basic blocks, my favorite set was the Space Police as a kid. How about you guys?

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    1. Re:Space Police. by Construct+X · · Score: 2, Interesting

      3 peace boat? lol, that's not far from being just an average toy with some accesories. They don't make them like they used to for sure.

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      Download Opera 9 (in the BETA forum)
  2. Segway by Staplerh · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I thought this was kind of neat. From the CNN article:

    The LEGO competition is the brainchild of Dean Kaman, inventor of the Segway scooter. It's part of his FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Championship -- a global robotics competition for middle school and high school students.

    Good on him, I haven't heard much of him since his vaunted Segway scooter. That being said, I think that it'll help more people 'think outside of the box'. Imagine if you had started doing this sort of thing between the ages of 9 - 14; you'd either burn out and be sick of it, or you'd continue to build on your knowledge until your in university and can really compete/innovate!

    --
    "There's no success like failure, and failure's no success at all."
    - Bob Dylan
  3. Not robotic, +1 offtopic but still impressive by EtherAlchemist · · Score: 5, Interesting


    Lego church from hell

    Not quite my style, but damn- this is pretty cool. Not to mention friggin' huuuuge.

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    R(k)
  4. Vex Robotics by kherr · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Dean Kaman is doing more things. He just launched his Vex Robotics. This is the robotics kit that is a step up from LEGO Mindstorms. Essentially based on Dean Kaman's FIRST competition, this is a commercialized manufactured robotics kit.

    I've just about finished assembling my first robot with the kit, and the kit is what I've been waiting for since I could solder stuff together (no soldering required). It's real metal parts and real radio control and soon real programming. Radio Shack is the exclusive outlet for these, and they sell all of the sensors, gears and wheels, motors and other parts as individual components, so one can upgrade their robot as much as necessary.