Not Exactly, But Contestants In "MoonBots" Educational Contest
Will Use Snap-Together Bricks For Lunar Rover Design
The X PRIZE Foundation and LEGO
Group have announced the twenty finalists for MoonBots, a global
educational contest. Using LEGO bricks and MINDSTORMS components,
the challenge requires teams of students to create simulated lunar
rovers similar to those competing for Google Lunar X PRIZE, a
competition that will award $30 million to privately funded teams
that explore the surface of the Moon with innovative robots. More
than two hundred teams from sixteen nations registered for MoonBots
and completed the requirements of the first phase of the
competition, which required both in-depth research about lunar
exploration as well as the use of Computer Assisted Design (CAD)
software to mock up a lunar robot.
The contest was open to students between the ages of nine and
eighteen. Judges of the competition were impressed with the results
from all of the entries. "Teams with little or no previous
experience with robotics or with CAD software are engaging in the
competition on equal terms with veteran teams," noted Steven
Canvin, Marketing Manager for LEGO MINDSTORMS. A survey of
participating students revealed that nearly half of them reported a
significant increase in their knowledge of lunar exploration, and
over half reported learning new skills with various CAD programs.
"The students are learning to combine several challenging skills
and to apply them in a new way. MoonBots requires them to get
creative, and to find imaginative ways to express how they've used
Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math to reach solutions to a
difficult problem."
The twenty finalists are:
- ARES (Texas, USA)
- Coastal Quarks (California, USA)
- Cougar LEGO Robotics Team (Ohio, USA)
- Crandroids (Michigan, USA)
- G.I.R.L.S. (Missouri, USA)
- got robot? (Illinois, USA)
- Intergalactic Bacon (Florida, USA)
- Just Ducky (Minnesota, USA)
- Landroids (New Jersey, USA)
- LegoAces (Ohio, USA)
- Lunar Horizon (California, USA)
- Milkyway Monsters (Massachusetts, USA)
- Moonwalk (New Jersey/Connecticut, USA)
- New Hartford RoboSpartans (New York, USA)
- OABB 4-H Lego Robots (California, USA)
- Pushing Frontiers (Lovenjoel, Belguim)
- Team Tater Tot (Minnesota, USA)
- The Shadowed Craters (California, USA)
- WEBstormers (Cape Town, South Africa)
- Yellow Jackets (Michigan, USA)
All twenty teams will receive a LEGO MINDSTORMS kit, two year
subscriptions to WIRED Magazine, and all of the LEGO bricks
required to build a simulated lunar surface required in the next
phase of the competition.
The X PRIZE Foundation and LEGO
also announced several members of the expert judging panel that
will decide upon the grand prize winners. Included among them are X
PRIZE Foundation Trustees Anousheh Ansari, entrepreneur and private
astronaut and Dean Kamen, inventor, entrepreneur, and founder of
the F.I.R.S.T. robotics competitions. Also judging, are Steve
Hassenplug, Master LEGO robot builder and Jeff Kodosky, co-Founder
of the engineering firm National Instruments. "Selecting the
finalists from the initial pool of candidates was an
extraordinarily difficult task for our Phase One judges," said
William Pomerantz, Senior Director of Space Prizes for the X PRIZE
Foundation. "The quality of work was extremely high. All of our
finalist teams are extraordinarily capable, so we expect the robots
they build and the research they conduct to be extremely
professional. Our expert judges have their work cut out for
them!"
The twenty finalists will spend the next two months transforming
their computer assisted designs into actual hardware, and
perfecting a robot that can successfully explore a lunar surface
built from LEGO components while performing a variety of tasks
meant to simulate the requirements of the $30 million Google Lunar
X PRIZE. The competition will culminate in a live "Mission Webcast"
conducted by each team, wherein the will need to complete their
simulated lunar mission on a tight three-minute timeline. Each team
will also be required to submit a video documentary detailing how
they put together their mission, and what they've learned from the
competition. Thanks to the support of MoonBots partners Google,
Inc., National Instruments, and WIRED Magazine's GeekDad blog,
three winning teams will win prizes including registrations and
start up kits to compete in the F.I.R.S.T. robotics competitions,
iPod Touches, and a trip to LEGO's world headquarters in
Denmark.
FMI: www.moonbots.org