The robot attachment build in this tutorial gives an idea on how to release a rubber band at a specific moment using a motor. It's a simple, but yet powerful technique on using rubber bands.
Rubber bands can be quite powerful. Based on several requests from you we are starting a series on using the LEGO Rubber bands available in the Mindstorms set.
Here we continue examining FLL 2014 World Class missions. We show different ways, for putting the insert in place as well as taking the loop from the robotics arm. Some of them are quite specific, which reminds us, that you need to think out of the box, while solving the missions.
In this video tutorial we experiment with different ways of solving the sports mission for throwing the ball. We show seven different LEGO MIndstorms EV3 and NXT robot constructions and attachements. Most of the techniques could be applied for any mission involving throwing a ball or an object.
Let's try to integrate more of the things we have learned into a single attachment. One that could accumulate energy, conserve it and use it at the appropriate time. All this because of a Rubber Band and a Flywheel - and if you don't know what a flywheel is you should definitely watch this videos
In part one we build an attachment that uses a rubber band to solve a competition challenge. The rubber band was released with the use of a motor. In this video we are removing the dependency on the motor and you could use the motor for other missions.
This is the oldest and most classic problem in the field of robotics. Shaft in an opening. Basically robotics and in improvement of many of the actuators is about improving the solutions to such problems. Let's see how we ca do this using a mission model from the FIRST LEGO League (FLL) competition.
This time we stop on "Using the Right Senses" mission, or actually on how to solve the "Right Senses" mission without "Senses" (sensors). To achieve that we use the carabineer counstructed in one of the previous tutorials, of course after a small modification.
The previous rubber bands video showed a way to trigger the rubber band without a motor. This video gives one more idea on how to lift an axle and in this way release the rubber band. Use the idea for you LEGO Mindstorms robot constructions.
In this tutorial of the series we would get into more details on how the flywheel works, what's its purpose and how the whole attachment is triggered with the first rubber band.
"The devil is in the details". We are improving the Rubber band attachment with a Flywheel by introducing a few small, but important modifications that make the whole robot attachment more stable and reliable. With the conclusion of the series this attachment could be used as a basis for some very interesting STEM demonstrations on energy accumulation and conservation.
The third part of the series the goal is to extend the robot attachment so that we could solve the second part of the FIRST LEGO League World Class mission challenge - to take the loop.
The attachment is now so advanced that we can do two tasks at once with it in order to solve the FIRST LEGO League 2014 World Class Search Engine Mission.
Third, and last video of this series on how to use ONE attachment to solve the FLL 2014 World Class missions.