Show Me The Math!

2019#07 You SPIN ME ROUND, ROUND

6/9/2019

There are many tricks to using the Gyro sensor effectively:

Make sure that your Gyro is not drifting when the robot is completely still. If it is drifting you can unplug and re-plug the sensor while holding it completely still.
When making turns and waiting for the sensor to reach a certain angle, the motors take a split second to react to the stop command and may overshoot the target angle. You can either try to predict the overshoot and target a lesser angle (i.e try to target 85° when you want a 90° turn if there is a reliable 5° overshoot) or you can have your robot turn back slowly to recover from the overshoot.
Children sometimes get confused when comparing negative numbers. Use the graphic below to help your team members visualize the comparisons that need to be made to program effectively with the Gyro sensor.

Try this exercise with your teammates to see if they understand the concepts needed to program the Gyro.

Match the 3 comments to the programming sequence that implements the description.

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2019#06 Playing by the rules

5/19/2019

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Four teams competing in a December FLL qualifier were all well prepared for their robot game and received the top 4 robot game scores of the 24 teams at the event. They each thoroughly read the rules though had chose different priorities, so only 2 of these 4 teams with the top scores were able to advance to the regional championship.

The judges were most impressed with The Tenacious Trojans when they demonstrated their innovative robot opening up a trap door to deliver one of the mission models from base to its field position. They received the Robot Design award but since they chose not to do the Core Values poster which hurt their overall ranking, it knocked them out of advancing to the championship.
The Erudite Echos spent all of their time on their Robot Game and it showed in their Robot Score which was the highest score at the qualifier. However, they were able to do this because they did not complete a Project so were not eligible to receive any award including the Robot Performance Award.
The team that won the 1st Place Champions Award, which is the only award that guarantees advancement to the regional championship, scored 55 points lower than the team that won the Robot Performance Award. This is because they gave equal attention to the Project and Core Values area of the competition which some of the other teams neglected.
The Saavy Spartans scored higher in the Robot Game than the Magnanimous Muses. The Saavy Spartans were also the other team that advanced because they were strong in Project and Core Values as well which covers 50% of the judging criteria.

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2019#05 LOOK MA, NO SENSORS!

5/14/2019

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Plan your City Shaper mission to get from base to the ramp using the simple EV3 program above. Apply power to both wheels to make your robot go straight. Apply power in opposite directions for it to turn.
To do this you will calculate how far your robot travels per rotation of its wheel given the wheel diameter, and how many rotations it takes to move a full turn given the distance between your 2 wheels. Then use that to calculate the rotations for each step above.
You may need to know that 1in=2.54cm, 1 FLU (Fundamental Lego Unit) = 0.8 cm and that circumference = 3.14 x diameter.
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2019#04 Don't procrastinate, investigate!

5/13/2019

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Four teams in Austin wanted to get a jump start on their FLL Project for the 2019-2020 City Shapers FLL Season. The challenge hadn’t been released yet, but they did not want that to stop them from practicing their research skills. What better way to research city problems then to look up the latest Bond Election approved by the City of Austin for 2018. Identify which team choose which bond programs from https://www.austintexas.gov/sites/default/files/files/Finance/CFO/2018-Bond/COA_2018Bond_Booklet.pdf and what each bond program was called and cost the taxpayers of Austin.

Even though there aren’t any beaches in Austin, the Skyscraper Surfers were big on outdoor fun, so they wanted to research how Austin would be using the Prop C funds to improve Parks and Recreation.
The Tower Tinkerers where surprised to learn that Affordable Housing was the largest funded bond program and were curious how Austin proposed to use those funds.
The Transportation Infrastructure bond program was researched by the team with a mode of transportation in their team name.
Prop G was funded for more than Proc C, but less than Prop D which was not Affordable Housing.
The team that studied Flood Mitigation had a strong affinity to understanding aquatic events since their team was named for an aquatic animal.
Flood Mitigation was funded for more than Transportation Infrastructure.
The Effervescent Electric Eels did not research Prop G.

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2019#03 TEAMWORK STEAMWORK

5/12/2019

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Most people already know that robotics is a great way to develop skills in STEM or STEAM, but FIRST Lego League is unique in its elevation of soft skills such as teamwork to a top-level judged criteria through its Core Values Awards category. Match these four FLL teams with their team size, Core Values focus and favorite team building game.

The largest team had the hardest time lowering the Helium Stick while each member still maintained two finger contact. But it was so effective in improving their communication skills by forcing them to cooperate, that it became their favorite game and encouraged them to make Teamwork their Core Values focus.
The Sagacious Scientists had 4 more members than the Eloquent Engineers, who because of their small team size, decided to focus on Coopertition so they could help other teams.
The Meteoric Mathematicians loved doing Logic Puzzles because they got to practice logical reasoning. They enjoyed having 5 of their members taking turns reading the clues and appointing the 6th member as a scribe so that everyone was included.
The Human Knot was the perfect game for the seven member team, they were big enough to make the game interesting, but not too big that it was impossible.
The team that focused on Team Spirit had more members than the team that focused on Kids Do the Work.

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2019#02 ACES OF Texas

5/8/2019

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A team from each of the four subregions of the Texas ACES Region started preparing for their 2019-2020 City Shapers FLL Season in a different month in 2019. These 4 teams each focused on a different competition area: Core Values, Project, Robot Design and Robot Game. These four areas are now equally weighted toward the advancement criteria. They each also took a different approach on how their team would stand out in their Project judging.

The team that focused on Core Values was really big on sharing. They wanted to use their season to engage with other teams as well as share their project presentations with their local community beyond just their parents and coaches.
The Capital City Cyclers started two months before the Downtown Clowns which gave them plenty of time to focus on research using clues from the pre-season teaser ahead of the official challenge release on August 1st.
The team that started last was a school team waiting for on-campus meetings to start. They dove straight into the Robot Game. Though they didn’t have the summer to get ahead on research, the figured they would make up for it by focusing on innovation.
The Downtown Clowns started after the The team that focused on Core Values but before the McAllen Stallions.
The team that focused on the Project over the other 3 competition areas did not spend much time on Research.

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2019#01 City Lights, Camera, Action!

5/6/2019

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Four FLL teams preparing for the 2019-2020 City Shapers FLL Season each focus on a different area of the competition: Core Values, Project, Robot Design and Robot Game. These four areas are now equally weighted toward the advancement criteria. Each team has all from the same grade level: 4th, 5th, 6th or 7th grade. To start off their team meetings they each practiced a different form of programming automation.

The rookie 4th-grade team started off focusing on Core Values and building a Starter Jig since it didn’t require them to have advanced programming skills.
The team that focused on Robot Design designed a very flat and sturdy rear bumper that made straightening their robot with wall wreckoning very effective.
The team that learned how to manage gyro drift at their first meeting was a 4-year veteran team that had been together since their 1st year when they were all in the 4th grade.
The Naboo Taboos didn’t use a gyro on their robot but was still able to focus on the Robot Game by using another sensor that allowed for straightening their robot perpendicular to lines on that game field.
Cloud City Slickers was back for their 2nd year, since they focused on Core Values their rookie year, they decide to focus on Robot Design for the City Shapers season.
The Geonosis Clones were 2 grade levels ahead of the Cloud City Slickers who did not use the gyro sensor.
The team focused on the Robot Game started their season perfecting their Line Squaring algorithm.

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