I just finished ref’ing the qualifiers for our FIRST LEGO
League robotics season – 6 events in 3 weeks. I must say when this year’s theme
was first introduced (Hydrodynamics), I was very excited about the project
aspect, but no so much the game. As an engineer, I thought the water theme lent
itself particularly well to some interesting research ideas. But as a referee,
I was a little fearful that the robot missions were a somewhat complicated for most
kids, especially those on rookie teams (and in my neck of the woods, we had a
lot of rookie teams).
In the past, there has always been one mission that basically
involved sending the robot straight out of base to push some type of lever or
handle. As referees, we hate to see teams walk away from the competition with
no points, especially after 3 heats. These missions were always a way to allow
teams to at least get on the board. However, this year, the two missions that
came closest to meeting this simple criterion (the Filter and the Flow) were
both tweaked in ways that made them difficult to complete successfully.
The Filter mission required the robot to push a handle until
the lock latch dropped into place, but there were two factors complicating this
mission. First, the handle on the mission model was positioned perpendicular to
base so that the robot needed to make a 90° turn in its approach. Second, there was an
obstruction next to the handle that prevented the handle from going all the way
in (literally most times the handle was only a millimeter away from letting the
lock latch drop). I’m sure that’s why this was one of the higher-point
missions, but it still might have been nice to remove the obstruction and lower
the points. (I know, “nice” is not usually a term equated with “competition,”
but as an engineer I like to see young kids walk away feeling a sense of
accomplishment with at least one mission.)
The Flow mission was the challenge that straddled the two
competition tables. In the past, this mission has always been in the center of
the playing field making it almost impossible for all but the tallest referees
to reset. Thank goodness the designers moved this to the northwest corner of
the table right across from base. However, rather than simply push the handle,
the robot was required to turn one of two levers to release the water cylinder
to the other player’s field – not an easy maneuver to make, especially for a
rookie team.
The other missions attempted most often were the Pump
Addition, the Fountain, the Pipe Removal, and the Tripod – all relatively close
to base and involving fairly simple maneuvers. Several teams scored points on
the Rain mission, but truthfully, the rain cylinders dropped more times by the
robot accidentally bumping into the model rather than actually sliding its
handle. So this year’s game turned out to be easier than I’d originally
thought... or maybe kids are just getting cleverer in their robot designs.
