Hold on to your robots – it’s the thrill of the FIRST LEGO League!
With their faces straining with emotion and amid the deafening cries of support and shredded nerves, the young participants their coaches and families enjoyed a thrilling competition. A sporting challenge that left them breathless but which also had its dose of research and learning which for all those involved was success itself.
Following long months of preparation, designing their prototypes and implementing the necessary improvements to make them more competitive, the Citilab-Cornellà meeting represented a key challenge for dozens of young aspiring engineers dreaming of winning international competition for programmable robots FIRST LEGO League (FLL) 2009. All wanted to show on the games-table exactly what their creations were capable of after all of that hard work and get their hands on one of the prizes taking them to the FLL 2009 Spanish final, to be held at the end of the month in Barcelona.
The 20 teams of boys and girls from 10 to 16 years old who competed hard at Citilab in the 2 and a half minutes racing against the clock, also had to show the judges that their project for a sustainable vehicle and efficiency was the best. This is the most investigative aspect of FLL and that which really marks out the design and research tasks of the participants on both fronts and se if they comply with the competition slogan "Smart Move". In turns, the different teams demonstrated their prototypes to a technical jury first, who valued the design and construction of the robot, and after to a scientific jury, who looked to see which side had best resolved the issue of mobility in their environment.
A keenly fought tournament with many winners
It did not turn out easy to decide who were the best teams in the different categories of the competition, but finally the marks given by the referees for the table-top trials and from the technical and scientific judges decided who wer the winners at FLL 2009 for Catalunya. Independently of the prizes, it goes without saying that the enormous effort shown by everyone and the intense atmosphere last Sunday at Citilab, showed that all participants put heart nd soul into this tournament and the level was extremely high. The spectators enjoyed some thrilling moments on the track, made possible by robots constructed of pieces of LEGO Mindstorms which with their precise movements appeared to almost enjoy their own intelligence.
The prizes for the "Smart Move" FLL 2009 at Citilab-Cornellà were as follows:
Prize for Best Science Project: FMC
Awarded to the project of the team demonstrating that their components can make a difference in problem solving, and later contributing with ideas and solutions applicable in the real world.
GMV Prize for Innovation and Creativity: C Montse Team
Valueing originality in the design of their prototypes, this is a prize awarded by the sponsor of the event.
Prize for Best Robot: Immaculada
Sometimes we measure success only by a name, but in this case, a name could represent hours of strategic study and improvement and programming and mechanical design of the Robot. Immaculada already went off with the prize at last year’s FLL.
Prize for Best Design: Safatronic
Rewarded the team incorporating solutions in order for their project and corresponding presentation were prepared universallly, for people of any age and disability.
Prize for Best Teamwork: Robocat
The team receiving this prize shows confidence, energy, great ability to resolve problems and togetherness as a group.
Prize for Young Promises : Citilab
in each tournament there are teams that the judges detect will soon be staring with the best of them, recognising that here there is one set to blaze a trail in future challenges.
Prize for Best Team: 2C + (MD)2 Project
Sensations notable right from the first moment out on the track, excitations and enthusiasm for science and engineering, they continually surprise. They cheer us up, make science and technology fun, accessible and rewardable. That’s why they deserve this prize.
Prize for Best Coach: Moreres
Behind every good team of young promises of robotics there is always one orchestrating all of their components and makes sure each piece works in the best way, just as blocks of LEGO in a Robot as a whole. This prize values precisely this leadership.
In the robots tournament, the final table read:
- First place: Immaculada
- Second place: 2C + (MD)2 Project
- Third & Fourth place: Mestral and MadeinTNG
Only the top thre prizewinners at Citilab go through to the Final for Spain. These will be Immaculada, C Montse Team and FMC who will take on the rest of Spain on 21st february at the Cosmocaixa Art Centre in Barcelona.
Smart Move: a course for quick minds
This year’s Tournament, “Smart Move”, promoted by the Scientia Foundation and sponsored by GMV, also attempts to get us to reflect on new modes of transport that connect people, places, merchandise and services more efficiently. The teams will have to take into account different modes of transport and limitations, optimizing their options to make the smartest move.
With the help of their coaches, the teams will have two challenges in front of them:
· A PROJECT OF GLOBAL RESEARCH IN TRANSPORT: A scientific one in which the participants have to investigate what offers the best possible and efficient mobility for them, in order to find innovative solutions to resolve obstacles. Finally, they have to use new technology to share the results of ehri trials with the rest.
· ROBOT COMPETITION IN DIFFERENTS MISSIONS: Exciting successive little tests that have to be overcome at the competition table in less that two and a half minutes. The young designers have to work on a fully developed and swift vehicle to dodge all of the obstacles on the track in the least time possible.
There are different categories of prizes, Winner of Robot design, Prize to the best scientific presentation, Best Team-work...and so on until designating the Absolute Challenge Champion for this phase of qualifying for the Spanish edition of 2010.
The FFL in Spain and the world
This is the fourth time this competition has been held in Spain, and this year the figures have doubled: from 1.200 participants divided into 128 teams competing in 6 qualifying tournaments in 2008, to 2.200 youngsters forming 224 teams throughout 13 trials.
The Final in Spain is held, as we have said, at Barcelona. The best classified in this year’s Final can choose between compeeting at the World Festival of Atlanta from 15 – 17th april 2010- where all of the participants from the different competitions of the FLL will gather-, at the Open European Championship of Istanbul (22 – 24th april 2010), or at the Open Asian Championship of Taiwan (6 – 8th may 2010). In fact, one of the teams competing at Citilab last year, the FMC of Francesc Macià High School, Cornellà, was one of the best classified and went to the european final in Copenhagen.
The FIRST LEGO League is an ambitious programme founded in 1989 by Dean Kamen with the aim of stimulating interest in scientific and technological stuff, improving their creativity, innovation and capacity for team-work. With sporting values the boys and girls construct, experiment and live the complete creation of ideas process, resolving problems and overcoming obstacles. All of this stimulates their curiosity and natural ingenuity, helping to discover scientific vocations and strengthening their motivation to learn.
In november 2008 and coinciding with the first aniversary, the first permanent LEGO Mindstorms Robotics Center was set up at Citilab-Cornellà for youngsters in Spain. The methodology of learning via games and technology blends in with the social innovation projects of Citilab.
