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Robotics Toys

Vex Pics from FIRST/LEGO/Vex Robotics Competition 76

Posted by timothy from the vexing dept.
antispam_ben writes "Last week's Slashdot article linked to CNN's coverage of the LEGO League robotics competition. LEGO League was only part of the event. I gave a short description and links to the original FIRST Robotics, LEGO League, and new Vex Robotics competitions in this comment. New from the local robotics mailing list is this page of pictures from the Vex competition."
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Vex Pics from FIRST/LEGO/Vex Robotics Competition More

Vex Pics from FIRST/LEGO/Vex Robotics Competition

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  • This story title gave me a headache. (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 01, 2005 @01:45AM (#12396529)
    It was like trying to read a Bhutanese eye test chart.
  • EEk! Stop them from robots from taking over the world!

    • Re:Matrix has you. (Score:2, Informative)

      by rlamoni ( 443974 )
      LEGO Compeitions are great. We hold a number of local ones for HS and grade school students (Rules + Pictures) [siue.edu] and they always draw media attention [siue.edu] and a HUGE turnout. [siue.edu]
      • The stuff some of the kids come up with for these contests is somteimes quite amazing. I tagged along witha friend that was judgin g a local one last year and this one group of grade school kids (like 5th or 6th graders) built the most amazing robot I've ever seen....made me feel kind of embarassed about the handbuilt robot I had made for my senior design project as an EE undergrad. I think the advantage the kids have is that their imaginations have no grounding in what can realistically be accomplished.

  • From an inspired FIRST student (Score:3, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 01, 2005 @02:42AM (#12396722)
    FIRST things first, I am a student in FIRST robotics. Any comments that Radio Shack is attempting to make money off of FIRST is blatently wrong. FIRST is sponsored by Radio shack (as mentioned before) and even has its own award at the competition, the Radio Shack Innovation in Control Award, which my team won in Phoenix. If anybody honestly thinks that Radion Shack is in FIRST for any other reason than to spread the mission of FIRST (as shown on usfirst.org), they are wrong.

    Please do not comment on something that you know nothing about.

    • Re:From an inspired FIRST student (Score:3, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Man that was confusing, I was just waiting for you to say "Who's on FIRST."
      • Man that was confusing, I was just waiting for you to say "Who's on FIRST."

        Yes
      • FIRST = For Recognition and Inspiration in Science and Technology

        It would have helped if he had avoided the pun and if he had used the acronym the way that the program itself does now - italicized - but it wasn't all that hard to read in any case.

    • You being a student must be a young person and we should forgive you but this is /. Why in the hell would anyone want to speak only on the things they know? That would amount to the same thing as actually reading the article before you comment.
    • This coming from an AC. If you expect us to believe you AREN'T a corporate shill, why the AC? I mean, surely you know what that does to the credibility of your post.

  • Rather interesting... (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward
    We've had these Vexx at the Shack for several weeks now, and the only ones that I've seen show real interest in them have been the 18+ slashdot crowd sort (despite the supposed 12-14 age group that they're aimed at). I suppose that it's difficult to get a parent to spring for a $300 starter kit. When it comes down to that, or an iPod for Christmas, I have a feeling that I know which way most kids will lean. However, I do think that it's fantastic that money is being poured into something worthwhile for k
    • It's not just Radio Shack. Anyone could get a job there, since it's a regular retail job.

      I think the goal here - like it is in FIRST - is to get kids interested in engineering in general. We're going to need people to work for the auto companies. NASA is going to need more engineers. What about the airline industry? Architecture? Landscaping?

      If Vex can inspire the engineering mindset at all, that's what we need. The goal isn't to create Radio Shack employees, but to create engineers.

      That poin

  • I looked at the Vex Robotics Product page, and it looks like an erector set. (OK, there is a micro switch.) I see nothing about processors for brains (aside from the Lego Mindstorms).

    So is this just a big erector kit, with kids making their own mini-butter-bots (TM - just like battle bots, but nothing gets damaged.)?

    Information Please;)
    • Why does it matter if the robots get damaged or not?

      Considering that the goal of the kits is to get kids interested in robotics, it's actually for the better that they aren't. I'd definitely lose interest quickly if the bot I had spent hours working on was ripped apart in thirty seconds. Who would want to go through that effort again only to be destroyed by someone else?

      There are also some major differences between Vex and Erector. I haven't seen an Erector set with the radio controller, or the abil

    • I see nothing about processors for brains (aside from the Lego Mindstorms).

      I'm told there are two Microchip PIC microcontrollers, one fixed-function with a mask ROM, the other with FLASH memory for program space, and there's a connector on the VEX to download code direcly to the FLASH.

      There's a lot available for the PIC, eval kits as well as both commercial and freeware C compilers for the PIC.

      If you want to program the VEX, I suggest getting up to speed on the PIC now (especially if you've not programm
  • After reading up on the $299 starter kit, I'm actually tempted to buy one. Compared to the aging Lego MindStorms kit, the extra $100 cost is worth it just for the radio controller alone.

    Near as I can tell, this kit tries to recreate a user experience similar to that found in the game, MindRover [mindrover.com], but with a more hands-on approach.

    Has anyone here actually used a Vex kit? I'm very curious about the learning curve and any recommendations on purchasing add-on parts. (The starter kit is good, but somewhat limit
    • Ok, I seem to have answered some of my own questions by downloading the inventor's guide [vexrobotics.com] (76MB PDF File) from the Vex website.

      With the exception of programming, the overall learning curve seems pretty minor. The hardware assembly is only slightly more difficult than comparable Lego kits, and does not seem to require the user to solder anything.

      As for additional parts, it sounds like the best option is to purchase two starter kits and combine them into a larger, more functional robot. Although, I did find
    • I got a Vex starter kit before the official launch, and have built my first robot with it. The kit itself is much better than I expected. It comes with wheels, gears, metal body pieces and lots and lots of screws and nuts. You also get a number of motors and a servomotor as well as limit switch sensors and bumper triggers.

      There is a very nice radio control unit that comes in the kit that allows for different controlling modes and has all kinds of adjustments for sensitivity and calibration. You can also ch
  • Vex is meant to be a program that fits in between LEGO League and FIRST Robotics. In fact, its public unveiling was at Atlanta last weekend.

    It's still a very young product. The Vex kits have been in Radio Shack for less than a month now, and the FIRST-sponsored Vex Robotics Challenge won't actually begin until next year.

    I could be a bit biased because I've been in FIRST for three years now and will most likely be mentoring a team next year, but I'd love to get my hands on one of these kits and play w

    • ...and the FIRST-sponsored Vex Robotics Challenge won't actually begin until next year.

      The first FIRST Vex Robotics Challenge took place this year in Atlanta. Out FIRST team (team 116) also had a VEX team (team 18), and our VEX team was in the winning alliance (composed of 3 teams) this year. (Our FIRST team placed in the middle of the pack.)

      The Vex playing field was right next to our FIRST team's playing field (we were in the Archimedes division).

      Heidi and I took over 2,000 pictures at the Atlanta Rob

      • Didn't they say that this year was just a test for the program, though?

        I seem to remember having heard Dean say that the program would be rolled out wide-scale next year during the opening ceremonies, but I could be wrong.

        I thought that the bigger, full on competition season was supposed to start sometime next year.

  • A shameless plug of my cousin and his son's team who came in first in FIRST. I got an email from my family saying the guys were in Georgia along with a link. No mention of the fact that they actually won the national competition! May to go, Mat, Neil and team!!
  • ...has anyone ever put together a LEGO robot that can build a LEGO robot? There's a LEGO plotter (http://unite.com.au/~u11235a/lego/plotter/index. h tml [unite.com.au]), so the ability to position things is there, and theres a LEGO Rubic's cube solver (http://digg.com/robots/LEGO_contraption_solves_Ru bic_s_Cube [digg.com]), so the ability to grasp things and move them is also present. Building something that can build a copy of itself would be a powerful demonstration of a Non Neumann machine, albeit one with a considerable need
    • Lego robotics (by roboticists of any age), especially attempts at self-replication, should be well within the spirit of this thread, but I'll push the OT envelope with this link:

      http://www.henrylim.org/Harpsichord.html [henrylim.org]

      Yes, that's right, it's made of LEGO's (except for the wire strings) and plays. The mp3 of it sounds just dreadful, but it's like the waltzing bear, it's amazing that it waltzes at all...
  • Our team participated at Atlanta in the Vex demonstration/competition as the Sharon Eagle Unlimited and Sharon Eagle AngelBots ( http://eaglevex.home.comcast.net./ [home.comcast.net] We fielded two bots, numbers 13, aka "Johnny" (http://www.vexlabs.com/images/vex-robots/vex-robo t-pics-28.jpg [vexlabs.com]) and number 44, aka "Lassie" (http://www.vexlabs.com/images/vex-robots/vex-robo t-pics-33.jpg [vexlabs.com]). We did very well, placing 19 and 29 respectively out of 53 bots. We had the youngest member in the competition (4th grade - go David!) who
  • Forgot to mention in my previous post, the only downside to the competition was the lack of an autonomous aspect to the competition. The programming environment was not released and so the competition was completely remote controlled. For a UNIX/Linux software guy like me, that was a disappointment. But I understand that the development kit is coming out soon (late summer?) and will include a graphical and C interface.

    r

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