Building Instructions

This is Kriket. Kriket is an example of a Box robot assembled from LEGO Education SPIKE Prime and could be used during a competition like FIRST LEGO League to achieve a smooth, repeatable behaviour of the robot. In fact. This is why it was designed. The goal of Kriket is to be a "Box Robot" and to allow for attachments to be glided on top of it. Check the courses for Kriket to understand more about how it could be used.

The robot requires a few more parts than the standard LEGO Education SPIKE Prime + Extension sets, but it is worth purchasing and having them

Here you can find a list of the parts that you'll need to get on top of the SPIKE set 45678 and the expansion set 45680, to build this robot.

We experimented with building a box robot powered entirely by chains—a unique approach inspired by the original LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT Robots. Chains like these can be hard to find, but we thought: why not try to power both the robot and its attachments with them? This design not only powers the entire robot but also provides a great demonstration of how and when chains can be effectively used in robotics.

To build this robot, you'll need approximately 180 chain links (part 3711a), which are available in the NXT kits and some Technic sets.

Please note that this robot requires additional components beyond those included in the LEGO Education SPIKE Prime and SPIKE Essential kits. Check out the additional parts required.

Thinking about box robots with LEGO Education SPIKE Prime, Boxver is a good example. It is tiny, kind of small and has the brick in a vertical position. Two motors at the front. The goal of this robot is to achieve reliability and consistency of the behavior of the robot.

Here you can find a list of the parts that you'll need to get on top of the SPIKE set 45678 and the expansion set 45680, to build this robot.

Mello is named after the famous DJ "Marshmello".

This robot is designed to work like half of a DJ set. It speeds up or slows down a melody based on the rotation of the motor. Can you create some cool remixes with it?

The Sports Utility Vehicle box robot is the new marvelous box robot that we've created. It is designed for teams that would like to learn how to build balanced, stable and working robot chassis following our box principle. It is smaller and easier to build than box robot 1 and it is more simple than box robot 2. 

The main advantages of this robot compared to previous box robots are 

 - motors in the right direction, so when rotating the motor forward, the robot moves forward.

 - it is much easier to attach attachments. There are 4 different gears on which you could attach attachments. 

 - it has a large clearance - which means that it could move over obstacles.

Of course, it has a Gyro and two Color Sensors.  Not only that, but we have all the cables shown in the construction.

When not to use this robot?

The SUV Box robot is design to be used with a Gyro sensor and two Color Sensors for alignment. It is not working well for following lines as the sensors are very high and they are very high to allow for high clearance of the chassis. If you need to follow lines we recommend the Dominator X-Y robot

Attachments:

 - [How NOT To] Build An Active Attachment For SUV Box Robot

 - Simple Pinless Attachment for the SUV Box Robot

 - SUV Front Active Attachment for Box Robot

 - Attachments Frame for SUV Box Robot

Chromagraph is a play on the original name of the record player, the "Phonograph," which comes from the Greek phono (sound), graph (writing), and chroma (color).

This robot is designed to work similarly to a record player. It has a rotating “disc” with different colored bricks that are read by the color sensor. The robot then plays a sound for each color. Can you create a melody?

Luly is a new STEAM competition robot from LEGO Education SPIKE Prime. We would use in some of the courses. It's simple, it requires a really small number of parts and we can demonstrate most of the attachments and programs with it. Check out the courses below and see how Luly is used to compete in a competition.

Paga is named after the famous violinist Niccolò Paganini.

The robot is designed to resemble a violin. The faster the motor turns, the higher the pitch it produces. Let’s see if you can play a concerto on it!

This incredibly compact SPIKE Prime Box Robot is designed for competitions such as the FIRST LEGO League (FLL) and World Robot Olympiad (WRO). Named Whakatae, derived from the Māori word "whakataetae," meaning "competitive," this robot measures 17 LEGO units in length and 15 LEGO units in width. It features two color sensors in front of the wheels for precise alignment, two large motors for movement, and two medium motors for attachments.

The best part? You can build this SPIKE Prime Box Robot using just the Base Set, an additional large motor, and a color sensor!

Sympho is named after Symphonium, the first company to manufacture music boxes.

The robot uses a color sensor to detect whether the box is closed. When you open it, the robot can play music and spin something with the motor. You can build anything you like on top!

Dominator is a compact LEGO Mindstorms EV3 Box robot from the family of the Roller Coaster and Kiddo box robots. Similar to the previous two robots, Dominator also can move its front part up, down, left and right. This robot also has the same length of movement as its two predecessors of this type - 8 LEGO pins on the side and up.

The difference is that Dominator has fewer parts and has a perfect center of weight that allows it to use large attachments and lift heavy objects without threatening its stability. The movement on the X and Y axes has the same gear ratio. The light sensors are attached to the movable part of the robot which enables it to both follow a line and recognize the color of various object with height lower than 7 LEGO units.

Carlos, named after the famous Mexican guitarist Carlos Humberto Santana Barragán.

The robot uses the distance sensor to determine the pitch of the sound and the force sensor to play the sound. You can shred pretty good with this one!

Second part of the building instructions for this LEGO Mindstorms EV3 competition robot chassis

Download button at the bottom.

This is a program we created for the LED strip display course.

#include <Adafruit_NeoPixel.h>

#define  LED_COUNT 20
#define  StripPin A2
#define  HallEffectSensorPin 6
#define  HallEffectGNDPin 5
#define  HallEffectVCCPin 4

int startSeconds = 20;
int startMinutes = 10;
int startHours = 1;

int secondsArrow;
int minutesArrow;
int hoursArrow;

int arrowPosition;

int hallSensorPastState = LOW;
int hallSensorRead;
int timeForOneRotation = 1;
unsigned long RPMTimer = millis();

Adafruit_NeoPixel leds = Adafruit_NeoPixel(LED_COUNT, StripPin, NEO_GRB + NEO_KHZ800);

int color[3] = {255, 100, 150};
int secondsColor[3] = {255, 0, 0};
int minutesColor[3] = {0, 255, 0};
int hoursColor[3] = {0, 0, 255};

void setup(){
  pinMode(HallEffectSensorPin, INPUT);
  pinMode(HallEffectGNDPin, OUTPUT);
  pinMode(HallEffectVCCPin, OUTPUT);
  digitalWrite(5, LOW);
  digitalWrite(HallEffectVCCPin, HIGH);

  leds.begin();
  leds.setPixelColor(19, color[0], Color[1], color[2]);
}

void loop(){
  RPMUpdate();
  ClearLedsWithoutTheLastOne();
  arrowPosition = StateFrom60();

  secondsArrow = ((int) floor(( millis() / 1000) + startSeconds) % 60);
  minutesArrow = ((int) floor(( millis() / 60000) + startMinutes) % 60);
  hoursArrow = ((int) floor(( millis() / 3600000) + startHours) % 12) * 5;

  if (arrowPosition == secondsArrow){
    for (int i = 0; i < LED_COUNT - 3; i ++){
      leds.setPixelColor(i, secondsColor[0], secondsColor[1], secondsColor[2]);
    }
  }
  
  if (arrowPosition == minutesArrow){
    for (int  i = 0; i < LED_COUNT - 6; i ++){
      leds.setPixelColor(i, minutesColor[0], minutesColor[1], minutesColor[2]);
    }
  }
  
  if (arrowPosition == hoursArrow){
    for (int i = 0; i < LED_COUNT - 10; i ++){
      leds.setPixelColor(i, hoursColor[0], hoursColor[1], hoursColor[2]);
    }
  }

  if (arrowPosition % 5 == 0){
    leds.setPixelColor(18, color[0], color[1], color[2]);
    leds.setPixelColor(17, color[0], color[1], color[2]);
  }
  leds.show();
}

void RPMUpdate(){
  hallSensorRead = digitalRead(HallEffectSensorPin);

  if(hallSensorRead != hallSensorPastState){
    if(hallSensorRead == HIGH){
      timeForOneRotation = millis() - RPMTimer;
      RPMTimer = millis();
      hallSensorPastState = HIGH;
    }
    else{
      hallSensorPastState = LOW;
    }
  }
}

void ClearLedsWithoutTheLastOne(){
   for(int i = 0; i < LED_COUNT - 1; i ++){leds.setPixelColor(i, 0);}
}

int StateFrom60(){
   return (int)floor(((millis() - RPMTimer) * 60) / timeForOneRotation) % 60;
}

Meet Kiddo, smaller sister of Roller Coaster. It is smaller, easier to build and easier to control box robot with X-Y moving plate.

The goal of this robot is to have one complex attachment that could move in four directions. With such an attachment you can solve a lot of complex tasks without loosing time changing attachments. It is also quite sturdy and packed

Here is an idea. What if a robot does not need attachments. What if there is one special attachment on the front that could do most of the work? Probably an attachment that allows you to move a lever in any direction.

This here is a Box Robot with X - Y axys plane. This robot doesn't need active attachments because it has X - Y table that do the job. Imagine that there is a plane on the front of the robot. With the rack mechanism you can move to any coordinates on this plane. 

We have a lot of ideas how to make it even better. We will try to release them in the next few versions.

Building instructions for a competition robot following the "Box robot" principle. The robot is built with LEGO Mindstorms EV3 and could be used at FLL and WRO.