12. Inertia triggered attachment for collect

Animation of an 'Inertia triggered attachment' from LEGO MINDSTORMS Robot Inventor

This short animation demonstrates a really useful principle for FIRST LEGO League competition and this is how to use the Inertia of the robot to trigger an attachment that will do the work for us. It is very useful as we don't have to use the motors of the robot and we can afford to use the motors for other things.

The first time we build an Inertia triggered attachment was with FIRST LEGO League 2012. We were accomplishing one of the mission for bringing a chair back to base. We had to go, take the chair and bring it back to base. A useful feature of attachments that are triggered by the inertia is that there is almost no programming involved. You have to stop and the attachment is triggered.

What to do with the tutorial

Try to build the attachment following the instructions in the robotics lesson for LEGO MINDSTORMS Robot Inventor. The attachment with the robot could be build from a single LEGO Mindstorms Robot Inventor 51515 set and no spare parts are needed.

How it works - 'Inertia triggered attachment' from LEGO MINDSTORMS Robot Inventor (LIVE)

This is a live video tutorial of an inertia triggered attachment build with LEGO MINDSTORMS Robot Inventor. The attachment, the robot and the mission model are all built from a single 51515 set. The cool thing about inertia triggered attachments is that they are active and are activated without the use of any motors which means that you have the motors for the other missions at FIRST LEGO League competitions. In the tutorial we demonstrate and explain how such attachments works and how they could be used.

The physical phenomenon of Inertia is quite interesting. It is the way the universe works and Newton has formalized it in an easy to understand law of physics - the third law of physics is - "If a body is at rest or moving at a constant speed in a straight line, it will remain at rest or keep moving in a straight line at constant speed unless it is acted upon by a force". The same applies here - when the robot stops the attachment will continue moving forward until it hits the ground.

Gazon 2.0, a LEGO Mindstorms Robot Inventor robot with a single sensor

In the LEGO Mindstorms Robot Inventor set there is only one color sensor. The original Gazon is build from LEGO Education SPIKE Prime where there are two light sensors. The idea behind this robot is to be able to build it from Robot Inventor and to use it during FIRST LEGO League competitions

Inertia triggered falling attachment from LEGO MINDSTORMS Robot Inventor

This is an Inertia triggered attachment build with a LEGO MINDSTORMS Robot Inventor 51515 set. With this attachment we can collect different parts and bring them back to base at FIRST LEGO League competitions. The principle is useful as no additional motors are required for activating this attachment. In the same time it is active which means that it moves and can change it's position in space separately from the robot.. which is useful

Scratch (Word Blocks) program to move forward and return with LEGO MINDSTORMS Robot Inventor

A Scratch (World Blocks) program for LEGO Mindstorms Robot Inventor 51515 set. With this program we make the robot move forward and stop. In this way the inertia triggered attachment that is placed on the robot is activated and it falls down. Then we return back to base with this mission model that we've collected with the attachment

Python program to move forward and return with LEGO MINDSTORMS Robot Inventor

A Python program for LEGO Mindstorms Robot Inventor 51515 set. As with the Scratch program this program all makes the the robot move forward and stop. The inertia triggered attachment is activated and when the robot moves back the mission model is returned back to base. The attachment collects the mission model.

Construction plates mission models build with LEGO Inventor set. FLLCasts Off-season Challenge 2019

These are construction plates used as Mission Model for preparing for FIRST LEGO League competition off season. They are build with LEGO Mindstorms Robot Inventor set and following the idea of the same places with LEGO Education SPIKE Prime construction plates and LEGO Mindstorms EV3 construction plates