Second of two robot articles

Illinois Robot Team Finds Simpler is Better

Kids on the Robotic Maniacs team decided simple would be better for their robot entry in the First Lego League regional competition. By keeping the robot's "brain" programming short and sweet, they hoped to win.

It almost worked.

Jonathan, Matthew and Michael Shaffer

The seven-member team didn't win the top prize. But, they did get the "Innovative Design Award" in the regional competition among 16 teams. The beginner robot competition drew teams from Missouri, Illinois and Arkansas.

(For another story about an award-winning St. Louis area team from St. Charles County, click here. YSL.com is providing two stories from the First Lego League tournament.)

Fifteen-year-old Jonathan Shaffer of O'Fallon, Ill., said, "By making the programming simple, we got more speed out of the robot."

He said their robot completed 71/2 of the nine obstacles during the competition.

Jonathan said the only stumbles were on the stair-climbing and put-food-on-the-table. "We didn't even try the food obstacle and we couldn't make the full right turn on the stair-climbing," he said.

Jonathan has been working with Lego figures since he was 7. But, this was the first robot with a brain. He did build a Lego car with a motor. But, the operator controlled the car with an attached cord.

The regional Lego robot contest involved robots that operate without any operator control. And, there was a time limit on overcoming the nine obstacles.

Jonathan's younger brother, 10-year-old Matthew, helped write the program to overcome a CD loading obstacle. At first, they were planning to use a lifting attachment.

But, Matthew said, "Instead of a lift, we decided to just ram the CD with the robot and push it up the ramp." The ramming was simpler, and faster, than a lift program.

Thirteen-year-old Michael Shaffer also was on the Robotic Maniac team. He said the three brothers are building a robot at home that will feed the dog and pick up clothes.

Emily Horton

Twelve-year-old Emily Horton of Collinsville explained how a ramming move by the robot also helped them overcome the shooting-the-basketball obstacle. She said that program involved ramming the robot into the basketball standard.

"When the robot stopped, momentum kicked the ball into the basket," she said.

This is her first attempt at programming and building robots. But, she said she's now looking at a career in robot technology. "This team helped me figure out what I'd like to do," she said.

Emily said she got involved in the team because she lives in the same neighborhood as the Howard family. Ron and Diana Howard were the advisors for the robot team. Also, Alison and Ryan Howard were on the team.

Alison and Ryan Howard

The Howard family home turned out to be where much of the pre-tournament work was done. In the lower level family room, the Howards built a replica of the obstacle table used in the tournament.

That let them try out all the programming, attachments and strategies for overcoming the tournament obstacles.

Twelve-year-old Alison said everyone on the team did part of the programming. Then, the team members combined to build the actual robot. "We built the robot first. But, then we had to rebuild the back end because it didn't work right," she said.

She said the team also learned the value of regularly making a second copy of all programming. She said, one time, the team didn't save a programming part and the computer crashed. They had to rewrite the lost programming.

Eleven-year-old Ryan Howard said he was about 8 when he started working with robots. But, this was the first time he'd been involved in a robot competition.

The robot test board

He said he worked on designing attachments. He recounted the problem with the CD. "We couldn't make an attachment work so we decided to ram the CD into place," he said.

Ryan and other younger members of the team said they plan to enter the First Lego League competition again next year.

He said science is his favorite subject in school. "I like the hands-on science," he said. Ryan plans to be an engineer when he grows up.

The seventh member of the team was 13-year-old Andrea Cover of O'Fallon, Ill.

The team members who didn't live in Collinsville got involved because their families went to the same church as the Howards.