Comments on: The scientific method – lego robots edition

By: Peter

Peter — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 10:46:34 +0000

http://www.nwilts-he.org.uk/wiki/index.php/Robotics

I belong to a Lego robotics team (FIRST Lego League) and I know that no matter how well built a robot is there is always inherent variability and inconsistency. One example is a tyre being put onto a wheel slightly wrong causing a small sideways bias when trying to drive straight.

The plastic Lego is made of is highly flexible and malleable compared to the relatively high grade plastics and metals normal robots are made of.

In a highly complex system (a human) a difference in one variable will cause very little change on the whole,where as in something this simple a single variable changing can cause a large discrepancy in results.

This is why sometimes our team wins, and sometimes our team loses.

In conclusion, this may help shed light on some of the reasons why the robots were so inconsistent.

Peter (age 15)

By: Gostai

Gostai — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 10:45:51 +0000

Did you know Lego Mindstorm robots were fitted with the open source universal OS for robotics Urbi?
Robot users shouldn’t have to learn a specific language every time they get a new robot & it’s useful being able to program in C++ so beginners can program too.
Hope it all makes it easier to use Lego Mindstorm.

By: Robert Wright

Robert Wright — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 16:19:51 +0000

Simple rules can lead to very complex behaviour. Consider Conway’s game of Life: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conway's_Game_of_Life
Here, just 2 rules create amazing complexity. This is one of the simplest of cellular automata.
Other fascinating behaviours come from simple mathematical rules. Consider the now legendary ‘butterfly effect’. In this type of phenomena the mere facts that we can never either measure something with absolute precision, nor compute exactly, produce great patterns.