ROBOTMAK3RS Blog

From the MINDSTORMS website: "If you own a LEGO® MINDSTORMS® NXT robot, if you live in the area of New Jersey/New York City, USA, and if you are willing (and if your parents say it is ok) for you to help us with some product testing in early October, ask your parents to download and complete the attached form, and send it back to us. Once we receive the signed form from your parents, you may be contacted by a representative from the company, that conduct the focus group for the LEGO Group. If you are chosen, we may end up having you join us to help with some consumer product testing." More details: http://mindstorms.lego.com/en-us/News/ReadMore/Default.aspx?id=320866 Good luck! Richard

This year, Built On The Rock is taking a break from FLL. However, a couple of the team members and I are forming a new FTC team with some members of Team Overdrive, the World Festival robot champions from last year's FTC competition. (The other members decided to move up to FRC this year). The new robot system used in FTC, which combines the NXT with stronger, more powerful, non-LEGO construction pieces and motors, looks really nice. It makes sense too; the NXT has great processing and sensory power, but the LEGO construction system and NXT motors just aren't made for big, strong robots. Once we get our kit and the season gets underway, I'm hoping to post a lot more information about the system; it seems like it could be really useful for many applications other than FTC. Any other NXT people out there looking at or getting into FTC? -Jonathan

Proof that the race doesn't always go to the swift. (And that the word, "bingo" has the same meaning in German and English). :)

One of the two teams that tied for 1st place Robot Performance in the World Festival this year is the Mindstorm Troopers from Ohio. Composed entirely of homeschoolers, they had won the 1st place Robot Performance award last year. This year, however, they made history by becoming one of the second teams to get straight 3/3 perfect scores at a World Festival. This was also the first time two teams tied for top Robot Performance, and on top of that, the Mindstorm Troopers became the first team to win Robot Performance two years in a row. Talk about a lot of accomplishments! As you can see in the picture above, their robot is highly compact and stable. Below are the team's comments on it, which they named RT1200: Our NXT robot, the RT1200, is designed for reliability and durability. Its streamlined differential-drive steering system avoids unnecessary friction points and gear interactions. There are only two drive wheels, each independently controlled by a motor. There is one drive wh...