Robotics Presentation to Pack 1492 in Sasche, TX

Team Model Scouts took a road trip to Sasche, TX to meet Pack 1492 on May 17th, 2012.    Naturally, we brought our robots.   We setup and ran three stations at the pack meeting: 1. First Lego League Robot Game, 2. robotic gadgets,  and 3. robot navigation —  a. line following using a color sensor, b. navigating to a beacon with compass and IR sensors sensors.

35 scouts from Pack 1492 attended the event.

Model Scouts receive Award at Boy Scout event

Model Scout Robotics attended the  Boy Scout of America Circle 10 Council awards dinner at Plano Centre on April 19th, 2012.    On stage, each team member was awarded a Certificate of Achievement for their success as a Scout team in FLL arobotics competitions. The audience chuckled that our winning robot was named “ScoutBot”.   We were the youngest award recipients at the dinner.    Two of the Scouters there thought Katie might be the youngest girl to receive a Circle 10 recognition award (she’s 14) in the Council’s history (1913) since Boy Scouts is historically just for boys.  They also noted that maybe 1 Cub Scout in the council (our council is the large with about 50,000 youth members) would earn a council level award each year.   Our team has 3 Cub Scouts, so Circle 10 made Team Model Scouts night a very happy one!  The van was full of chatter on the way home.   I wish I had taken a picture of the Welcome Robotics team banner at the registration table but it did not occur to me until the next day. I’ll remember next time!

 

 

 

Model Scouts entertains and educates at Friends of Scouting dinner

Model Scout Robotics entertained the guests at the Circle 10 Annual Friends of Scouting dinner on March 6th 2012 at the Dallas Hyatt Regency Hotel. We showed our autonomous robot, Scoutbot, running the Food Factor Challenge Robot Game course. We educated scouts, Scouters, and scout supporters on First Lego League, the new Boy Scout Robotics merit badge and getting started youth robotics. At the dinner, we heard an amazing female Venturer scout sing the National Anthem and we heard Condalezza Rice speak. Former First Lady Laura Bush attended the dinner but we were fairly far away to see her.

Matthew explains NXT-G code as robot moves

Eagle Scout asks Matthew a question at Friends of Scouting dinner

Model Scouts tours Robotic warehouse

Today was a school holiday, so Model Scouts headed to Dallas to tour the Mary Kay Cosmetics automated warehouse there. We visited the warehouse that stores products after production  but before shipped to the US regional and international distribution centers to fill customer orders. The warehouse was incredibly organized and efficient, with rows of neatly stacked products and a sophisticated warehouse cctv system ensuring everything was secure and well-monitored. It was fascinating to see how technology streamlines operations and keeps track of inventory. 2 managers walked us through the facility and showed us how their system works. We watched the robotic vehicles move pallets through the warehouse past automated inspection and shrink-wrap stations into holding areas where fast robotic arms picked up pallets and whisked them to high bay storage locations We also watched a mechanic instruct a robotic vehicle after its sensor found an obstacle in its path. We had an open discussion with the control room’s staff on the similarities of our Lego NXT Mindstorm robots with their robotic system. Their system uses metallic lines in the concrete floors for navigation where we tend to use light sensors, motor rotations and table edges to navigate our hobby robots. We were impressed that their system had a greater than 99% system accuracy score each month. Our team robot designs are accurate but not 99% yet! We were surprised to learn that the original Mary Kay automated storage and retrieval system was installed at the warehouse in Dallas in 1987. Thank you Mary Kay for a great tour!

North Texas Regional FLL Championship Playoff Videos

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.

ScoutBot retires

Happy Valentine’s Day!

In honor of Valentine’s Day, we have retired ScoutBot after a great first season in FLL.     Our team sponsor requested that we not dismantle him and reuse the parts.  Scoutbot will stay assembled on a shelf in our lab with our trophies as a permanent reminder of our great first season in FIRST LEGO League.    We will still take ScoutBot out to community events.   Our coach ordered a replacement Mindstorms kit so we will have enough kits for next FLL season.