Author Archives: pmichaud

Senior Solutions theoretical maximum: 733 points

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By my calculations, the theoretical maximum score for FIRST LEGO League Senior Solutions is 733 points:

* Wood Working       25
* Medicine           25
* Service animals    20
* Bowling            60
* Strength exercise  25
* Stove              25
* Gardening          25
* Video call         40
* Quilting           90
* Cardiovascular    118
* Flexibility        40
* Transitions        65
* Similarity         45
* Ball game         130 (see note)

Total               733

Note: It’s possible to score 130 points in the ball game mission if the robot puts balls back into the rack without causing a glitch or violating Rule 24.

Pm

Matthew and Anthony win at DPRG Roborama2012a

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Matthew and Anthony for Roborama 2012aOn May 12, 2012, team members Matthew Thomas and Anthony Mellone placed first and second in the Junior Level Line Following contest at the Dallas Personal Robotics Group (DPRG) Roborama 2012a competition.

For the Line Following contest, robots had to successfully make two laps around a course indicated by black electrical tape on white vinyl tile. Matthew’s robot (“Heinz Doofenbot”) completed 2 laps of the course in 75 seconds; Anthony’s robot (“Subatomic Fusion”) had difficulty with one of the sharper curves but still earned second place. Both Matthew and Anthony received gift certificates to mindsensors.com and Tanner Electronics for their entries.

Below is a video of Matthew’s winning run. You can also see other videos of Model Scouts robots at Roborama 2012a, the full Roborama 2012a video playlist, and other pictures from the event.

Coach Patrick also entered some events at Roborama. We’re all looking forward to the next DPRG contest!

North Texas Regional FLL Championship Playoff Videos

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Here are videos of our quarterfinal and semifinal rounds at the North Texas Regional FLL Championship on January 21, 2012. We scored 205 points (our highest!) in the quarterfinal round and 195 points in the semifinal round. We made it to the final round and took second place, but couldn’t get a good video angle so we don’t have that one.

Many thanks to Michael Thomas for the video footage!

Here’s the quarterfinal round. The bacteria missed the sink in the final mission(s), so we didn’t get our robot-maximum of 209 points.

Here’s the semifinal round. The robot hit and moved the blue pollution ball as designed, but the ring moved with it so we didn’t get the points there. When turning to head to the far (east) wall, the angle was slightly off so we missed the purple bacteria dispenser.

Team Model Scouts wins awards at 4th annual North Texas FLL Robotics Championship

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Team Model Scouts 2011

Team Model Scouts (#8658) won two awards at the fourth-annual North Texas FIRST LEGO® League (FLL) Regional Championship robotics tournament.  The team placed 2nd in the Robot Performance Competition and received the Judges’ Award as special recognition of their overall performance at the tournament.  The team consisted of (left to right in photo) Brady Chanpong, Katherine Thomas, Matthew Thomas, Anthony Mellone, and Brendan Chanpong, all of Plano, Texas.

The FLL competition was produced by the Museum of Nature & Science and presented by Lockheed Martin.  Teams of young “engineers-in-training” spent months studying food safety, then built and programmed autonomous robots using LEGO® MINDSTORMS technology to score points in 2.5-minute “mission” matches on a food safety themed playing field. Over 150 teams from the North Texas region competed in five regional qualifiers in December 2011; the top ten teams from each qualifier were invited to compete in the regional championship on January 21, 2012.

With a mission to inspire young people to be science and technology leaders, FLL engages kids through exciting, mentor-based programs that build math, science and technology skills. Aimed at an international audience of students, ages 9 through 14, the competition teaches real-world problem solving through engineering design and teamwork.