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Vex Pics from FIRST/LEGO/Vex Robotics Competition
antispam_ben writes "Last week's Slashdot article linked to CNN's coverage of the LEGO League robotics competition. LEGO League was only part of the event. I gave a short description and links to the original FIRST Robotics, LEGO League, and new Vex Robotics competitions in this comment. New from the local robotics mailing list is this page of pictures from the Vex competition."
im sure we can all bring the evil capitalist to heel by slashdotting his server and costing him a weeks's sales worth in bandwidth.
That made me laugh... OMG
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It was like trying to read a Bhutanese eye test chart.
Wow, you're completely wrong. Vex is a competition of the Non-profit organization FIRST (http://www.usfirst.org/). They're not aiming to "sell" to any market, only appeal to schools that don't have the money, time, or will to compete in FIRST Robotics. The robot that my team built roughly had $15,000 put into it, including parts and machining. That's expensive, unlike Vex were robotics are generally under $300. Radioshack sponsors FIRST to give them the oppertunity to do this. Buying the same parts from Radioshack for anything other than Vex might be twice as expensive. Geez, get your facts straight.
Bran muffins and whiskey.
I don't know what to believe anymore!
My Greatest Heist - Muisc partly inspired by the unbeatable Qwantz
And Vex offers autonomy when? LEGO offers is now, have for several years, for only $200 USD... I do have my facts straight. Get your head around the fact that robotic enthusiasts are more than FIRST, and what marketing really is... geez you can always spend tons of money on a robot, but anyone that claims to have the robot hobby answer for any competition is just wrong. Vex is nothing more than an Erector set with an R/C system added. It is not a robotics set... its just a clever R/C system, and it costs $100 more than a LEGO set that gives you both autonomy and remote control.
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dead chicken
EEk! Stop them from robots from taking over the world!
And in reality, there's not enough CPU power to do very much at all.
The only logic you can really do with either is limited to very few cases.
The only way you could really get anything done is by providing a 802-11b network link real-time and having a general purpose computer do the heavy processing for what I'd consider a "moving I/O device".
Actually, this depends on your cleverness and your design goals. There is always limits. My point is that Vex doesn't even give you limits of autonomy, it is simply an R/C system. The LEGO set at least allows the user to explore programming and system design. Even if you are programming an FPGA, there are limits, so there are no robotics kits that are going to allow you to choose your version of artificial intelligence, everything is limited. My point is that Vex provides less for the money than other available kits, and this article is mostly, if not all, about advertisement.
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You my friend, speak as though you have never tried to make any embedded system do anything. Sure, your .net application might be good, but until you have made an embedded system do something, be quiet....please.
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Those Vex robots looks like glorified Erector Sets, whatever happened to those? Those things f'ing hurt when you fall on them, I have the scars to prove it.
Lego Artical + Pictures Link in the Front Page = Soon to be /.'ed Server.
FIRST things first, I am a student in FIRST robotics. Any comments that Radio Shack is attempting to make money off of FIRST is blatently wrong. FIRST is sponsored by Radio shack (as mentioned before) and even has its own award at the competition, the Radio Shack Innovation in Control Award, which my team won in Phoenix. If anybody honestly thinks that Radion Shack is in FIRST for any other reason than to spread the mission of FIRST (as shown on usfirst.org), they are wrong.
Please do not comment on something that you know nothing about.
Everyone's dead, go away.
shouldnt all of us be at some party?
No that was yesterday, didn't you get the memo? Today we are at home lying in bed recovering from last nights party. NEVER AGAIN!
I was going to use my mod points on this but there was no mod option for "just plain dumb."
-1 (Troll) is antihammer
im jelous. and no, i DIDNT get the memo. wtf. what are you doing to me, people? am i mr banana fingers?
Man, --;
"This story is just a marketing attempt..."
Maybe, but if it's interesting, who gives a flying fuck?
"Oh no! Somebody wants my attention! Well I better tune them out!!"
"Derp de derp."
Tons of pictures?!
Wham! Bam! Slam! SLASHDOT! Kapow!
We've had these Vexx at the Shack for several weeks now, and the only ones that I've seen show real interest in them have been the 18+ slashdot crowd sort (despite the supposed 12-14 age group that they're aimed at). I suppose that it's difficult to get a parent to spring for a $300 starter kit. When it comes down to that, or an iPod for Christmas, I have a feeling that I know which way most kids will lean. However, I do think that it's fantastic that money is being poured into something worthwhile for kids with brains in their heads. It really makes business sense if those are the sorts that RS will be looking to employ.
The Vex programming system is coming out in August-September, along with chain-sprockets, better sensors, pneumatics, and other goodies. The programming system will feature Lego-style drag-and-drop, pure C, and a side-by-side mode that shows both at the same time. The current release is version .5, probably rushed to be available to teams for the FIRST challenge competition a couple of weeks ago. Right now, yes, it's an expensive RC set. In a few months, it should be what it's designed to be: a bridge between lego snap-em-together and full-scale weld-that-sucker robotics.
I used to love playing with LEGOs as a kid, assembling huge castles and mini-armies to take on the little space men. It seems like now LEGO includes too many theme/special use parts to make the larger structures. Wasn't the whole point of LEGOs that you had enough to build huge structures of your own design? I guess I'll have to get used castle pieces, those were my favs.
LEGO is a good toy for encouraging structural thinking when there's enough parts to do so. Let's give them some credit for sponsoring this, it's a smaller equ. of opening code to the publick.
I looked at the Vex Robotics Product page, and it looks like an erector set. (OK, there is a micro switch.) I see nothing about processors for brains (aside from the Lego Mindstorms).
So is this just a big erector kit, with kids making their own mini-butter-bots (TM - just like battle bots, but nothing gets damaged.)?
Information Please;)
After reading up on the $299 starter kit, I'm actually tempted to buy one. Compared to the aging Lego MindStorms kit, the extra $100 cost is worth it just for the radio controller alone.
Near as I can tell, this kit tries to recreate a user experience similar to that found in the game, MindRover, but with a more hands-on approach.
Has anyone here actually used a Vex kit? I'm very curious about the learning curve and any recommendations on purchasing add-on parts. (The starter kit is good, but somewhat limited.)
8==8 Bones 8==8
okay lets get a few things settled 1 "The Programming Unit" will be out in August but if you are really good and know naything about thsese thigns you can hack the previous (NON RadioShack) programing kit to work. Oh btw the RS unit comes with the chapter on programming (RHI C is what you need to know. 2 One of the things that has been said is you could use a VEX kit to prototype a bot for the USFIRST program so you don't blow your funding or build out of season. 3 a few hints as to how serious vex can get A safety googles should be in the section B the manual is in a 3 ring binder for a reason C have you actually looked at the parts list?? Lego = Windows Vex = Gentoo
Any person using FTFY or editing my postings agrees to a US$50.00 charge
In the next few months there should be a programing kit coming out as well.
It's still a very young product. The Vex kits have been in Radio Shack for less than a month now, and the FIRST-sponsored Vex Robotics Challenge won't actually begin until next year.
I could be a bit biased because I've been in FIRST for three years now and will most likely be mentoring a team next year, but I'd love to get my hands on one of these kits and play with it. It looks like it could be a lot of fun... :)
Goo goo g'joob.
A shameless plug of my cousin and his son's team who came in first in FIRST. I got an email from my family saying the guys were in Georgia along with a link. No mention of the fact that they actually won the national competition! May to go, Mat, Neil and team!!
My user name was a mistake. Input wasn't restricted, my bad.
The first FIRST Vex Robotics Challenge took place this year in Atlanta. Out FIRST team (team 116) also had a VEX team (team 18), and our VEX team was in the winning alliance (composed of 3 teams) this year. (Our FIRST team placed in the middle of the pack.)
The Vex playing field was right next to our FIRST team's playing field (we were in the Archimedes division).
Heidi and I took over 2,000 pictures at the Atlanta Robotics competitions this year. We'll pick out the good photos, and add them to our FIRST Robotics photo gallery on my web site soon.
- Eric, InvisibleRobot.com
And Vex offers autonomy when?
Officially in September when the programming kit is supposed to be released, but that's a while. I have little doubt someone's going to hack a a Vex and put online documents of what PIC I/O port/bit controls what device way before then. Get your PIC C computers ready, I have no doubt you'll find your "Naked VEX" pics online in no time.
Tag lost or not installed.
I got a Vex starter kit before the official launch, and have built my first robot with it. The kit itself is much better than I expected. It comes with wheels, gears, metal body pieces and lots and lots of screws and nuts. You also get a number of motors and a servomotor as well as limit switch sensors and bumper triggers.
There is a very nice radio control unit that comes in the kit that allows for different controlling modes and has all kinds of adjustments for sensitivity and calibration. You can also change the crystals on the RC control and receiver to switch to different frequencies.
The best part is the microcontroller. It is similar in many ways to the LEGO Mindstorms RCX, with connection points for the motors and sensors. There is support for two simultaneous radio receivers so you can have dual control of the robot if you'd like. What makes this better than a RC model is that the microcontroller is actually part of the system. The squarebot that is described in the manual will cause a 2-second shutdown of the motors if you hit something with the bumper, ignoring input from the RC controller. There is also an autonomous mode in the microcontroller firmware that allows for backing up and turning when an obstacle is hit.
What will make Vex really nice is the release the programming module later this year. Essentially the kit contains the brains of the Vex robot already and the programming module is not much more than a jump drive that attaches to the microcontroller through a serial port. It looks like you detach the programming module, plug it into your computer via USB and program it, then reattach to the robot for the code to be executed.
The components included in the Vex starter kit are or will be available as separate kits, so one can have as many motors or servos as needed or add chain drive. Even the RC controller and RC receiver are separate, so you can add that second controller if you'd like.
I see nothing about processors for brains (aside from the Lego Mindstorms).
I'm told there are two Microchip PIC microcontrollers, one fixed-function with a mask ROM, the other with FLASH memory for program space, and there's a connector on the VEX to download code direcly to the FLASH.
There's a lot available for the PIC, eval kits as well as both commercial and freeware C compilers for the PIC.
If you want to program the VEX, I suggest getting up to speed on the PIC now (especially if you've not programmed 8-bit microcontrollers) so you'll be ahead of the game when the programming kit (which presumably will document what port cotrols what thing) comes out.
Tag lost or not installed.
I was waiting for this to get posted, im a Member of US F.I.R.S.T. 818(im on the web division of my team | http://www.usfirst818.org/), and i was going to submit the story, but i forgot my password to slashdot! DOH!
It's nice to see this finally on slashdot!
P.S. When that co-ower guy from google came on and spoke to us, he sounded like Kip from napoleon dynomyte
P.S. 2 You have no idea how many people were laughing at the looser from microsoft, what kind of idiot sends a guy from microsoft to a nerd convention, thats just begging to be flamed!
The Vex programming system is coming out in August-September, along with chain-sprockets, better sensors, pneumatics, and other goodies.
.5, probably rushed to be available to teams for the FIRST challenge competition a couple of weeks ago.
Drool-drool.
The programming system will feature Lego-style drag-and-drop, pure C, and a side-by-side mode that shows both at the same time. The current release is version
I'd head the programming kits would not be available to the teams, that they got only the same off-the-shelf kits that Radio Shack is selling (they only got their kits about a month ago, about a week before Radio Shack started selling them). I saw TWO of the teams (three members of one, two members of another) and their VEX robots yesterday at the AHRC meeting. They clearly had used no programming package, and ran the robots only with the R/C controls.
Tag lost or not installed.
I'm a gr. 10 student, my school in the Greater Toronto Regional, we ended up being the second best rookie in the GTR. Over 80 teams were there at the Greater Toronto Regional, this competition certainly encourages learning. FIRST is a great opportunity for students who want to put into practice what they learned in Computer Engineering, Computer Science, Math, and Physics. Students have shown some very brilliant designs in the competition, this contest would certainly encourage students to go into engineering. I think supplying cheap VEX parts to schools is a good idea. The regular competition can be very expensive. The robot we built, costed $6000 dollars, and it's not even that great. The prices for the parts are way too high, for example, just one pneumatic cylinder costed us about $80, not to mention other stuff like motors, pneumatic regulators, festos, wheels, steel, operator interace, etc. IMO, every school with computer engineering or computer science courses should get their students one of these kits.
[1] "Vitamins" refers to items that a Non Neumann machine cannot produce on its own but which must be supplied from an external source. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clanking_replicator#A dvanced_Automation_for_Space_Missions
In this case, the vitamins would comprise an entire LEGO catalog.
Nothing for 6-digit uids?
I'm very proud to see the playing fields in those pictures, I helped put those together. I work as a machinist for a small robotics/automation company and I machined, assembled, painted and even welded a bit of some of those playing fields. Sorry for the blatant self praise, but I was just really excited to see those pictures linked from a huge website that I read on a daily basis. You can even see our programmer and the president of the company in one picture.
Our team participated at Atlanta in the Vex demonstration/competition as the Sharon Eagle Unlimited and Sharon Eagle AngelBots (http://eaglevex.home.comcast.net./ We fielded two bots, numbers 13, aka "Johnny" (http://www.vexlabs.com/images/vex-robots/vex-robo t-pics-28.jpg) and number 44, aka "Lassie" (http://www.vexlabs.com/images/vex-robots/vex-robo t-pics-33.jpg). We did very well, placing 19 and 29 respectively out of 53 bots. We had the youngest member in the competition (4th grade - go David!) who was the youngest driver in Vex competition.
The competition was amazing. Thousands of 13 - 18 year old nerdy-jocks with robots. How could it get better than that?
The Vex kits are a great fit between Legos and the FRC. It's been mentioned that Vex is an Erector Set with a controller and I think that's an appropriate description. It's a great kit and when you consider what's included, a good value.
Forgot to mention in my previous post, the only downside to the competition was the lack of an autonomous aspect to the competition. The programming environment was not released and so the competition was completely remote controlled. For a UNIX/Linux software guy like me, that was a disappointment. But I understand that the development kit is coming out soon (late summer?) and will include a graphical and C interface.
r
You're entirely wrong. I'm not entirely sure, but it seems that VEX kits have the same processor as the FIRST Robotics controllers used in the full scale competition.
Teams use a variety of analog and digital sensors, and a lot of math to compute their location, orientation, and position movable parts on the robot. They then use this information to perform a 15 second autonomous mode, achieving specific goals for that mode.
There is a limit to how much the processor can handle though, and teams use an additional processor to handle the more complex sensors along with their simpler ones.
Of course, such big boy items are only useful in the main FIRST Robotics Competition.