First Lego League: Robots in Elementary Schools

In an earlier article, I wrote about FIRST and the First Robotics Competition.FRC is a program FIRST implemented for high school aged students. First Lego League (FLL) is a program they implemented for students from 4^th to 8^th grade.

First Lego League takes the same basic concepts of using engineering to solve problems and gear it toward younger kids. As the name states, FLL uses Legos instead of metal as in FRC. In fact, FLL specifically uses the Lego Mindstorms Kit that can be purchased for home use for around $100. Combined, these details make FLL fun and appealing to kids that age.

Each year, around the middle of September, details for the year's game are released. Once this day has passed, the teams of 10(or less) will begin putting together the game field as instructed by FIRST. Each game piece must be made exactly as the instructions say down to the color. If there is even a slight difference, it could potentially hurt the team during the build season.

It is also during this time that the teams will start to get ideas for their project. The project is the non-engineering side of First Lego League. Teams are presented with a problem based off of the years challenge. They must then come up with a creative solution to that problem and present it to a panel of judges in a creative way.

Teams will also start building their first robot. The first one is never the final design; it is used to help practice programming and to get a good feel for how everything goes together. Even though this may only be a demo-bot, all robots Lego League teams make will have to have similar attributes. Such as, each robot is limited to only three motors. This role is very restricting since it takes two motors to drive; leaving only one for any kind of extension they want (i.e. an arm or lift).

FLL robots are also restricted to four sensors. This restriction is much more reasonable because there is only four legal sensors you are allowed to use. These four sensors are touch, light, sound, and ultrasonic sensors. The first three speak for themselves but the ultrasonic is not as clear. Basically, it uses ultrasonic waves to measure the distance between itself and the object directly in front of it. Most teams only utilize the touch and light sensors as a means of direction.

Once the robot is built, teams begin working on programming the robot. Unlike FRC, in FIRST Lego League the robot is completely automated on the field. The programmers decide on a path they want the robot to take and they use the language provided to tell the robot where to go. Coding the Lego Mindstorms set is fairly simple. They provide an assortment of "bricks" that tell the robot to do specific things such as drive forward or turn. Teams then put specific details into each brick such as how far or how long.

After eight weeks or so, kids arrive at an FLL competition, ready to show off what they have made. Regional Competitions are mostly local consisting of around fifty Lego League teams. Here, they are judged on multiple criteria: robot performance, robot design, teamwork, knowledge of the project, creativity of the project, etc... If they do well enough at the regional competition, they move on to the state competition. And again, if they do well enough there, they move on to the national competition in Atlanta, Georgia.

First Lego League allows students to have fun in the fields of engineering. It introduces them into science and technology like they haven't experienced before at that age. And it transitions them into the FRC program where they can get an even better experience working with real professionals.

If you would like your son or daughter to join a Lego League team, contact your local school to see about joining theirs. Or if your school doesn't have one, go to usfirst.org to find out how you could start a lego league team of your own.