Video tutorials -

• FIRST LEGO League

This is a 10 out of 10 tutorial on a basic approach for one of the unique challenges in FIRST LEGO League competitions. This basic approach to a solution is not very consistent, and in some of the next tutorials, we will present a new solution. But we decided to record it to demonstrate how reliable this attachment is when it comes to carrying large objects. That could give you ideas of things to avoid.

We should how to build a frame that could hold the attachments for specific competition missions. This frame is added in a pinless manner. This means very fast and easy without any glitches of the pins.

In this video tutorial, we demonstrate one of the unique missions of the FIRST LEGO League competitions - we must carry a rather large object from base an leave it on the field. This takes some considerations as other missions must be accomplished before that.

In this tutorial we present a way to align your robot to a black line. Go through common difficulties, that the teams face, when they need to align their robot, and provide a solution for them.

This is a 10 out of 10 tutorial, where we demonstrate the consistency and reliability of an attachment activated when we reach the mission model. We do not use a motor. We activate the attachment by pushing the robot to the mission model of the FIRST LEGO League 2021-2022 Cargo Connect Home Delivery Mission.

In this video we discuss how do we transfer power from the motors that are "inside the robot box" to the gear wheels that are "outside the robot box". 

Probably the robot I like the most from this series of five robots. See the video to understand why and what is interesting and special about this robot. 

This is a 10 out of 10 video tutorial demonstrating the consistency and reliability of a configurable attachment. The attachment is designed to accomplish the FIRST LEGO League 2021-2022 Cargo Connect mission model called Sorting Center. The mission model has 3 cargo objects that could be placed in a different way. The attachment is configurable and before the run we configure it for the specific way in which the mission model is set up before the start of the round.

This is the first Active Pinless Attachment for the Box competition robot. The attachment is placed on the top of the robot and is controlled by one of the motors. 

In this video tutorial, we demonstrate a configurable attachment used for accomplishing a FIRST LEGO League 2021-2022 Cargo Connect mission called Sorting Center. The mission model has three cargo objects that are placed randomly. The attachment is configured before the run based on the configuration of the cargo objects. This attachment is also very powerful as it aligns and auto-corrects the errors that the robot is making by squaring the robot.

One more example for an active attachment with a system of gear wheels. This time the system is constructed so that the attachment could lift heavy objects. 

This tutorial explains the use of motion and light/color sensors to accomplish a complex mission split into three parts. It gets into detail about how we keep a straight line with the motion sensor, follow a line with the color sensors, and transition between different parts of the program by aligning and detecting lines with the sensor. The goal is to get to a reliable and consistent behavior of the robot. On top of that, it is configurable, as we've left a few parameters that could be set to configure the behavior for a specific robot, venue, lighting, battery level, and wheels friction.

Without the use of any motor, you can still accomplish a number of missions using passive attachments. You can still pull/push on different levers using only a beam or two connected to the frame.

"Sometimes it works, sometimes it does not work" - this is the most common case in FIRST LEGO League competitions. In this tutorial, we demonstrate and discuss such a case where the first part of accomplishing the mission always works but the second part has about 60-70% success rate. The robot is not very consistent. Let's take a moment to see it and explain why so that we can resolve the problem in the next lesson.

In this video tutorial, we use the motion sensor and demonstrate 10 out of 10 times how we can keep the robot moving in a straight line. The program is described in the previous tutorial in the lesson where we enter into the programming. Here we visualize how consistent and reliable the behavior of the robot is.

In this video tutorial, we use the Unload Cargo Ship mission from FIRST LEGO League 2021 Cargo Connect robotics competition to demonstrate how we program the robot to keep a straight line while moving. Do we need that for this mission? Probably not, but we do it either way to demonstrate the solution in a fairly simple mission. The program uses the motion sensor to auto-correct the errors the robot is making while moving.

In this episode, we introduce a LEGO Mindstorms EV3 version of competition robot construction. It is a modular construction, with medium motor for additional attachments and two light or colour sensors for orientating on the field.

This is a 10 out of 10 tutorial for pushing gently on a mission model. We also discuss how to build robots that tolerate error and auto-correct their behavior.

Continuing with the Proportional algorithm for following lines. Smooth and stable this is the first part of the PID.

Rubber bands in the LEGO Mindstorms sets are very handy when it comes to collecting objects, especially loops. The mechanism most of the time could work like this - an axle is pushed, a rubber band is released and a lever collects the loop. 

Sometimes robot builders are so overwhelmed with the process of constructing a robot that they forget two very important parts. The brick should be accessible and the cables should not get in the way. These are referred by us as Brick Accessibility and Cable Management.    

Last part of the series. The final touch of the program makes sure that it works and is following the line with the LEGO Mindstorms EV3 Color Sensor in a smooth and fast way. 

This video discusses the fact the robot requires a few more parts that are available in the LEGO Mindstorms EV3 robotics sets. We have a number of other constructions that require less parts, but for this particular robot construction we have decided to go beyond the standard sets, cheaply buy a few more parts and build a whole box robot with them. 

In this episode we look at the way this robot is balanced. A well-balanced robot could handle heavier attachments without losing track of its position on the robotics competition field. 

In this video tutorial, we demonstrate how to gently push an object to accomplish the mission. "Gently" means that we are pushing but not with force. If we push using force, the mission model will fall, and we will not accomplish the mission. We use LEGO Education SPIKE Prime and the Ultrasonic Sensor.

With this first tutorial on the Motion Sensor in the LEGO MINDSTORMS Robot Inventor course we demonstrate the basic algorithm for moving in a straight line with the Motion Sensor. From here all the other algorithms are modifications, and if you know the basic it will be easier to tweak the behavior for your particular challenge

Pinless attachments are smart and quick and could make a big differences between two robot constructions. In this video we are sharing a nice idea for a pinless attachment placed below the robot.