Video tutorials

Using a number of axles, beams and rubber bands we collect many loops at once. This is an important part of every competition, mostly of the FIRST LEGO League.

We got the speed of rotations of the motor in Radians per second. Let's calculate the value for the speed of the whole system. We calculate that the wheels are rotating with 375 radians per second. Which is impressive and quite fast for this system. From this speed, knowing the inertia mass we can calculate how much energy is the system accumulating. 

In this second part we continue with the next few tasks from the FIRST LEGO League (FLL) 2013 competition. Using the same rubber band attachment we lift the house and collect a few of the humans and cargoes.

Accomplishing many tasks with a single attachment for the FIRST LEGO League (FLL) 2013 competition. The attachments are using many rubber bands. What is interesting is that it collects/lift/triggers many things at the same time. This is how you could save time and parts during a competition.

Arriving at a final solution. There is still room for improvement on using the Mindstorms Ultrasonic Sensor for aligning to walls, but we hope the whole five videos could give you a good idea of how to start with a problem and reach a solution.

We explore some common mistakes when a program is developed and becomes complex. We then try to remove part of this complexity. 

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.

In the final video we explore how to trigger the release of the attachment with just a rubber band. The release is triggered with a gear wheel that rotates in a specific way. This saves speed, does not require additional LEGO Mindstorms motor and is precise enough for a competition. 

If you get to a solution that is too complex you should always try to improve it. This is what we are doing here. Arriving at a solution for aligning to the wall that has become too complex.

Implementing the next logic for aligning to the border when we approach the border from the right.

We have previously aligned to lines with the Color Sensors. In this series we are doing the same program, but with Ultrasonic Sensors that are aligning the robot to a Wall.

Introducing three main concepts - Energy, Inertia Moment and Angular Velocity. We describe what is the moment of Inertia, how do we calculate it and how do we measure it?

This second part continues with importing two previously developed in Episode 53 blocks into our program. With them we can for align to lines. We program the robot to align to the cross line and start following it.

How do you detect a cross-section and move from following the main line to following the crossing line. In this series of video tutorials we are starting with a very simple solution that could work in most of the cases. It is especially useful for the FIRST LEGO League Trash Trek competition where there is such a section.

Last part of the series. The final touch of the program makes sure that it works and is following the line with the LEGO Mindstorms EV3 Color Sensor in a smooth and fast way. 

Continuing with the Proportional algorithm for following lines. Smooth and stable this is the first part of the PID.

Third, and last video of this series on how to use ONE attachment to solve the FLL 2014 World Class missions.

In this first part we stop at an algorithm that is the base for following lines and explains the basic idea for the proportion. A must watch if you want to understand the robot at its behaviour. At the end the program still wont work so check out Part 2 and Part 3 for the final steps.  

In a competition environment like the FIRST LEGO League (FLL) or World Robotics Olympiad (WRO) the color sensor is more than useful. It makes positioning on the field quite easy and precise. 

Tasks on using the LEGO EV3 Mindstorms Color sensor. Quite fun and useful for different STEM classes or just to get to know the sensor. 

The color sensors supports different modes of working. In this video we are working with the Reflected light, which is not actually the detected color. Most robotics sensors actually work with reflected light and you should definitely learn how to use this mode.

The program from part 3 should be refactored and improved to make it easier to understand and support. We extract most of the repeatable behaviours in a loop and this reduces the size of the program three times in terms of the number of blocks used. 

We show the principle of solving the next FIRST LEGO League (FLL) Nature's Fury 2013 competition missions. Again, without any programs, but just the principles of using one attachment for most of the missions.

Use the color sensor to count the lines and stop on the third line. We do not use the wait block for this.

How can you accumulate some energy in an LEGO Mindstorms EV3 construction an use this energy at a later moment? How does a Flywheel work, why is it important and what is the purpose? What is energy, inertial moment and angular velocity. These are just some of the questions we would answer in this series on Physics and LEGO Mindstorms.

Counting lines and stopping on the third is the subject of this video. It is important to know how to do this in order to conduct more than one experiment in STEM classes (if we consider that each line is an experiment)

One attachment to rule them all...We have seen it and it works -> solving most of the competition models with only one attachment. In this video tutorial without programming we would walk you through the principles and methods of using a single attachment for most of the FIRST LEGO League competition models. One can learn alot from using as few parts as possible to solve as many missions as possible.