The Brookline Telerobotics tournament is an event to help the Brookline robotics community stay connected in these incredible times.
Here’s how it works. We have built some standard "Educator Robots" at our home. During a live, 2-hour event using videoconferencing, open to any families who want to compete, we reveal one robot programming challenge at a time. Once a challenge is revealed, everyone competing works on their own computers to develop a program to solve it using the Lego Mindstorms (free) software. No robot is necessary to do this! When a family has a program working, the family uploads that program to us. In the order that we receive programs, we load them onto robots, hit "run," and live stream the result for everyone to see! As soon as a program is uploaded into the queue, other competitors can see it and modify it. Families can only submit a new program after the prior program they have submitted has been tested, creating a fast-paced coopertition, in the spirit of FIRST robotics. Everyone is encouraged to talk via voice and text chat through the videoconferencing system. Cheering during live runs is encouraged! We plan to host at least one event each week as long as physical distancing continues – at least six, probably more. Each week, the family that amasses the most points for completing challenges will win a yet-to-be-designed-but-ultimately-one-of-a-kind-really-awesome Brookine Telerobotics Tournament t-shirt. And, eventually, the family that amasses the most points will take home the grand champion prize and all the virtual telerobotic programming glory it represents. |
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The robot playing field is roughly a 4' x 8' board, seen above. The challenges and markers on the board will change each week and be a surprise each time there is a new event. There will also be a special "one-shot, expert challenge" in between meetings as well.
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No robot needed! |
Beginners welcome! Spectators welcome! |