Lego Mindstorms

We went to Ormiston Horizon Academy, and took part in a Lego Mindstorms day.

We were split into teams of two, and were given a Lego pack. We split down into 1 and 2’s. Each number 1 was  shown how to build a program in the Lego EV3 software, and what the action functions can do. The other person was shown how to download the program onto the control box, and run the program.

We followed the build guide on how to create the robot. This was an enjoyable experience as I loved playing with Lego. Once built we then moved onto the task of working out the program to carry out the instructions.

The tasks we had to program and complete started simple. Working out how many rotations of a wheel it would take to go a certain distance, 47cm and 82cm.

The next task was to work out rotation, and get the robot to move a block round a certain degrees and place it back in the correct spot.

Finally our task was to modify the build to include a way of collecting falling blocks, and transport them to the end zone.

We decided to use a tractor method and just drag all the block into the end.

To program the robot we used the Lego Mindstorms EV3 software. It works very much like Blockly and you can easily drag block around and build up the program.

The Lego Mindstorms day was really good at getting us to think in computational terms, and apply or problem solving skills. We also used a lot of trial and error and iteration skills, to get the maths just right to perform some of the motions.