Oregon Robotics Tournament

1
Oregon Robotics Tournament Outreach Program

• Intermediate Workshop
• August 2001

2
Hard vs Soft Skills

• Hard Skills
• Mechanical Design
• Programming
• Analysis
• Problem Solving
• Experimentation
• Documentation

• Soft Skills
• Timeliness
• Teamwork
• Tact
• Confidence
• Compromise
• Courtesy
• Perserverence
• Planning

3
Problem Solving

• Defining problem
• Brainstorming
• Evaluating alternatives
• Choosing alternative
• Implementing
• Evaluating testing

4
Advice from Minnesota

• Co-coach or otherwise pair up
• Keep a positive attitude
• Emphasize demonstrating a solution at the
  tournament is success
• Dont over emphasize winning
• Have fun
• Dont worry about the solution thats up to the
  team

5
Mission

• Share the fun of technical problem solving
• Open up the possibility of technical careers

6
Commitment

• Risk Taking
• Experimentation
• Failure
• Problem solving takes time

7
Coaches

• Coach can be
• teacher
• club leader
• scout master
• parent
• Coach will determine when team meets, etc.
• Coach does not need to be techie

8
Possible Profiles

• School Based
• In class Perhaps 45 minutes a day
• After school Perhaps 1.5 hours 2 to 4 times a
  week
• Special block Several hours once a week
• Club Based
• Probably after school or evening
• Independent team
• After school, evenings, or weekends

9
Practice Venue

• Can start with a floor
• Later may want an official competition table
• perhaps shared with other teams

10
Team size

• May start with more interest than you expect to
  continue
• In a computer lab, many mini-teams of 2-3 can
• experiment with programming
• search the web for robotics information
• Identify core team to design and build robot
• Eventually team should stabilize at 10 or less
• 5 to 7 team members may be ideal

11
Minimum resources

• A kit
• A computer
• A place to meet and practice
• classroom
• family room
• garage

12
Kit Info

• Can start with
• LEGO Mindstorms Robotic Invention System at 200
  or
• LEGO Dacta Team Challenge (D979790) at 228 plus
  Robolab software(W900050) at 38
• then upgrade in August with FLL Technology
  Upgrade Kit (990632) at 80.00
• Or, order FLL Robotics Starter Kit (990633) at
  260 for delivery in August.
• Recommend purchase of
• Team Challenge Introductory Activity Pack
  (L900055) at 25 and
• Team Challenge Activity Pack (D909790) at 30

13
Kit Ordering

• Mindstorms kits available
• from LEGO at 800-453-4652
• FLL kits from FLL web site
• Everything else available from
• Small World Technologies, 503-640-1729 or
• PITSCO, 800-362-4308
• See FAQ for details

14
Coaches vs Mentors

• Coach Organize team
• Mentor Technical consultant

15
Coach

• Instill spirit in team
• Recruit team
• Schedule meetings
• Arrange for practice table or equivalent
• Register team
• Order kits, etc.
• Understand the rules

16
Coach

• Encourage teamwork
• Insist on mutual respect
• Facilitate development of timeline
• Deal with parents
• Philosophy, goals, rules
• Communicate about tournament
• Solicit help
• Communicate with school, etc.
• Have fun

17
Mentor

• Technical Advisor Let coach do his/her job
• Understand both
• robot design
• programming
• Encourage structured problem solving
• experiment with one variable at a time
• set achievable goals
• Remember team members are kids
• limit terminology
• have fun

18
Mentor

• Pick one or two new subjects per session
• Loops
• Sensors
• Gears
• Pulleys
• Tracks
• Wheels
• Meet with coach regularly
• Dont solve problems for team
• Focus on questions not answers

19
Coaches -- Things to think about

• Refreshments
• Parents responsibilities
• Team sponsor
• Team shirts

20
Divide and conquer

• Locomotion
• Navigation
• Robotic Action

21
Locomotion

• Motors
• Gears/pulleys
• Wheels/tracks
• Steering
• Encourage simple experiments

22
Navigation

• Touch Sensors
• Means of triggering
• Pressed vs release
• Light Sensors
• Light levels
• Darker/lighter
• Calibrating thresholds
• Encourage simple experiments

23
Robotic Action

• Pushing
• Grabbing
• Lifting

24
Sources of ideas

• Constructopedias
• Web including
• Lego http//mindstorms.lego.com/
• Tufts University http//www.ceeo.tufts.edu/curric
  ulum/
• Real world

25
Kick-off Meeting

• Both team parents and team members
• Background
• Philosophy
• Format
• Goals
• Responsibilities

26
Second Meeting

• Kids only
• Discuss teamwork
• Pros
• Cons
• Discuss existing skills
• Assign kids to learning tasks
• Multimedia
• Build something from Constructopedia
• Discuss challenge in simple terms

27
Third Meeting

• Simple robots
• Acrobot
• Simple programming
• Pilot 1, 2, 3
• Discuss challenge

28
Fourth Meeting

• Robot with gears or pulleys
• Pilot 3 4

29
Fifth Meeting

• Introduce practice challenge
• Can-Do challenge or equivalent
• Pilot 4

30
Sixth Meeting

• More on challenge
• Inventor 1 or 2

31
Seventh Meeting

• Finish practice challenge
• Discuss how practice challenge could be made more
  difficult
• Discuss 2001 FLL Challenge
• Discuss possible divide conquer