The "Robotics Experts" at WRO

MCP Mark Crosbie, well-known for his LEGO® Streetview Car, has published a nice video on the "Robotics Experts" booth at World Robot Olympiad in Abu Dhabi:

World Robot Olympiad: Final Day

bazmarc's WALL-E - a hit with the kids

Sunday was the final day of the World Robot Olympiad in Abu Dhabi and most of us (including me) have returned to their home countries by now.

It was a fantastic experience and I'd like to address my thanks to all who made it happen.

Stay tuned for upcoming photos and movies from the Robotics experts' booth!

Some images on the competitions can be found on the official WRO facebook page right now.

World Robot Olympiad - Day 2

THE NXT STEP live from the World Robot Olympiad in Abu Dhabi:

Yesterday was Saturday and the second day of the WRO.
Teams were strongly competing in the different tournaments and we also had a busy and most successful day at our booth with many many visitors.

On the picture you see my favourite model amongst all the fantastic ones around here: the Fĺying NXT Blimp made by Robotics Experts Lasse and Kenneth from Denmark.

World Robot Olympiad - Day 1

(C) World Robot Olympiad (official)

THE NXT STEP live from World Robot Olympiad at Abu Dhabi:

Yesterday Friday the teams arrived here and had their day for gearing up. You might imagine the buzzling atmosphere in the exhibition hall; it was great to see all these gifted young people coming from virtually everywhere on the world.
They also were pretty interested in the models at our booth, and, Dear me!, what an amount of clever questions! 

Some images can be seen here.  There's also a live feed of the tournaments all weekend long.

WRO: preparation day

THE NXT STEP live from World Robot Olympiad:

Being here with on the second day with some of the finest LEGO® robot builders around - and it's feeling great!
Tomorrow, the event will open for visitors, so today we are going to have a lot of preparations to complete.
Some minutes ago, we were shown our booth in the new^* Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre. We are firming here as the "The Robotics Experts", officially invited, organized and supported by THE LEGO Group.

^*Actually, most of the buildings around here are pretty new or even still under construction.

World Robot Olympiad

Starting next Friday the 18^th of November, a great event will take place in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates: the World Robot Olympiad 2011.
For three days, hundreds of teams from all around the world will take part in the competitions there. Next to that, a lot of additional activities, events and talks will add spice for the visitors, last but not least a large exhibition of NXT robots by members of the community.
Some of them are also contributors to THE NEXT STEP (and I'm happy and proud to say that I will be one of them, displaying my NXT Hubble Telescope there  :) ).

So, stay tuned! Expect to see a lot of movies and pictures next week and in case we find time and web access, we intend to post even some on-the-spot reports from there.

LEGO STREET VIEW CAR

We are all familiar with what Google has done with the invention of it's Street View Car.. and we see the result each time we click on Street View* on Google Map!  Well Mark Crosbie has recently completed his latest version of the LEGO STREET VIEW CAR and it works pretty much the same way as the real thing...  Here is a video showing the history behind this project:



Worth mentioning is that Mark and his LSVC will be present at the World Robotics Olympiad finals held in Abu Dhabi this year -- If you are a WRO finalist and will be present in AD this coming week, be sure to go visit The Robotics Experts booth in the main hall and check this cool Mindstorms creation in action.

More detail on Mark LSVC can be found here: http://www.mastincrosbie.com/Marks_LEGO_projects/LEGO_Projects.html

More details on the WRO can be found here:
http://wroboto.org/en/



* Maybe one day we will be able to see LEGOLAND under Google Map's Street View mode!! :D

A discovery worth mentioning

When I receive comments on my Youtube videos or someone subscribes to my channel I usually go visit their channel. I love it when I discover another NXT fan and find some amazing new creations. This situation happen to me recently when a comment from hydejump made me discover an interesting robot he is working on. It does not have a name yet, but the 16yo builder from Japan has posted several short video showing the progression of his work and programming.

I particularly like the video below showing how he used 2 Ultrasonic sensors side by side to have the head follow his hand!!

 I have sent him a few emails in hopes to get more details of this really cool DALEK-ish looking bot with bubbly eyes.  hydejump is new on YT but between his participation to WRO videos, his intriguing NXT snake video and his complex red robot, this is one channel I did not hesitate to subscribe to!!

I: /. 7.

NXT robots in Arabia

On TheNational, Abu Dhabi's leading English-language news publication, there's an article on education in the United Arab Emirates  with LEGO® MINDSTORMS NXT.
More than 600 pupils there are preparing for the World Robot Olympiad which in November will take place in Abu Dhabi for the first time.

In the article it says

"Abu Dhabi Education Council (Adec), which organises the national heats, distributed 10 of the kits to each state school in Abu Dhabi last year and has been training teachers to incorporate the kits into their maths, science and technology curriculums."

10 kits to each state school! Isn't that great? I wish we had at least a noticeable percentage of that in our education system here...