Transcript Los Altos Robotics FLL Coaches Training September 14, 2008

Los Altos Robotics FLL Coaches
Training September 14, 2008
Organization and Schedule
Coaching Guidelines
Challenge Overview
Research Project Overview
Game Overview
Tournament Judging Procedures
break
New Coaches Training
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The Basics
Competitions
Robot Construction & Programming
Coach’s Guide
Leading the Team
Michael Schuh
Michael Murray
Los Altos Robotics
Supports Los Altos Robotics Competitions
Organizes the local FLL competition.
Board meeting schedule is on the website;
you are welcome to attend and help out.
Introductions
Announcements
Season Timeline
11 weeks to design, build, program and test
Challenge was revealed on September 5th
Local scrimmage Oct 26th 1:00-5:00 at Blach School
Local competition Nov 23rd 1:00-6:00 at Blach School
State tournament in January for teams that qualify.
Make sure that everybody on your team knows these dates
(check your calendar).
Team Registration
1. The team must register with the national FLL
organization If you have not registered by Sept.
15, you are likely to miss the season.
2. The team must register with Los Altos
Robotics. Registration does not guarantee a
place at the LAR tournament in November.
3. The team must register with the Northern
California FLL organization (NCaFLL) .
Registration opens around September 30th
and is free. When you register, indicate that you
want to participated in the Los Altos Robotics
qualifying tournament. Also select 2nd and 3rd
choices.
Join the “tigerbots” Yahoo group.
Details are at the www.losaltosrobotics.org
webpage
Coaching Guidelines
The coach is the most important role in making
FLL successful.
Begin with the end in mind: Get kids excited
about science and technology. Make it fun.
Responsibilities for Los Altos Robotics:
– Register your team
– Bring your playing field and challenge kit to the local
scrimmage or competition as requested
– Provide parent volunteers
FLL TEAM Core Values:
We are a team.
We do the work to find the solutions with
guidance from our coaches and mentors.
We honor the spirit of friendly
sportsmanship.
What we discover is more important than
what we win.
We share our experiences with others.
We display Gracious Professionalism in
everything we do.
We have fun!
FLL Coaches’ Promise
As coach, you are responsible for honoring and
communicating FLL core values to team members, team
volunteers, and others affiliated with your team.
All teams are expected to abide by FLL rules and
guidelines as they exist now and as they may be set
forth during the season. Team rules, guidelines, and
policies and procedures are detailed in this handbook.
Any updates, additions, participant consent forms, and
volunteer recruitment, screening, and supervision
guidelines for the team will be communicated to FLL
coaches via email and posted on the FIRST LEGO®
League section of www.usfirst.org.
Coaches’ Promise
My Promise as Coach:
1) The kids come first. FLL is about the kids having fun
and getting excited about science and technology.
Everything my team does starts and ends with that
principle.
2) The kids do the work. This is their opportunity to learn
and grow. The kids on my team do all of the
programming, research, problem solving, and building.
Adults can help them find the answers, but cannot give
them the answers or make the decisions.
3) My team is comprised of ten or fewer members (all
team members participate on only one team), registered
as an official FLL team, and all team members are no
older than 14 on January 1st of the Challenge year.
Coaches’ Promise
4) FLL communicates with my team via my primary
email address, and I am responsible for reading and
relaying all aspects of FLL guidelines and rules to my
team, other coaches, volunteers, and parents.
5) I will encourage my team members, other coaches,
volunteers, and team supporters to develop and practice
a set of FLL Values that reflects FIRST’s goal to change
culture in a positive way by inspiring others through our
team’s actions and words.
Coaching Resources
Coaches’ Handbook (read it!)
– Judging rubrics
FLL Website (new website)
– Project & Game Rules; check back for updates
– Videos of Game Challenges
– Judging: Blog etc.
www.hightechkids.org (U of Minnesota)
Mindstorm NXT Kit Guide
Other coaches and team mentors
The Challenge
The Challenge
The challenge announcement went out
September 5 on the FLL web page.
The theme this year is “Climate Challenge”
“Embark on an exploration of the earth's climate
in the Climate Connections Challenge! Discover
the links between science, people, resources
and communities. Unearth how we learn about
past climates and delve into questions
surrounding our current and future climatic
conditions.”
There are two parts the challenge
– Research Project
– Robot Missions
The Research Project
(Warren)
The research project is an assignment related to
the theme of the competition to:
– Find a Problem
– Find a Solution
– Prepare a presentation (be creative!)
The Research Project is announced as a part of
the challenge. There is a very detailed
description and it is related to this year’s theme.
The description is intended to suggest or allow
for the project to be as sophisticated as the team
wants it to be. The team should pick a project
that matches their interests and capabilites.
Research Project Presentation
The project is presented at the
competitions (not at the scrimmage) in a
10 minute time slot; 5 minutes for
presentation and 5 minutes for judges’
questions. Practice and time your
presentation to fit in the 5 minutes!
Judges will ask questions about the
project and will give a poor teamwork
score if all of the kids are not involved and
knowledgeable.
The Robot Missions
The challenge is a set of “missions” which
are to be done by the robot on the playing
field. Your team’s robot has two minutes
and thirty seconds to score as many points
as possible up to a maximum of 400
points.
Read the 2008 challenge mission
description carefully and interpret it
literally. Don’t assume anything. Your team
needs to understand it. (Video too)
In a competition two tables are set side by
side and there is a common mission set up
on both tables this year.
Playing Field Tips
Your robot needs to work well on any
playing field, not just the one you use:
– Put playing field on a level surface to avoid
sagging or any unevenness
– Take care in building the LEGO structures
– Place the LEGO structures on the mat
properly (best for an adult to do this)
– Place the mat in the Southwest corner!
– Make sure that your mat is flat:
Reverse roll your mat
You can use hair drier to ease out wrinkles if
needed
Robot Tips
Battery Management: make sure you have
a consistent battery level at the
competitions
Practice your runs with teamwork and a
time limit; budget the time.
Strive for repeatability and tolerance for
variation in the mission solutions
(create your team’s own “4of5” rule for
repeatability)
Tournament Judging
Challenge is designed by Scott Evans. He
defines and clarifies the robot rules.
New FLL Judge Advisor is Skip Gridley (he has
a blog on the FLL website). Results will be less
quantitative than in the past.
Local Judges are volunteers with relevant
experience and training specific to this judging.
Judging is imperfect and subjective but it works
well. The Judges are very dedicated and do the
best possible job they can.
Tournament Judging
The weighting for the overall score is:
– 25% Robot Performance
– 25% Research Project
– 25% Teamwork and FLL Values
– 25% Robot Design:
(Robot construction and Programming)
There are lots of things that your team can
be good at. Don’t just focus on robot
performance…
Awards (subject to change)
Champion’s Award
Technical Awards
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Robot Design Award
Robot Performance Award
Team Presentation Awards
Project Award
Teamwork Award
Special Recognition Awards
– Outstanding Volunteer Award
– Adult Coach/Mentor Award
– Young Adult Mentor Award
Optional Judges’ Awards
– Against All Odds Award or Perseverance Award
– Rising Star Award
– Team Spirit Award
Additional awards can be added at the discretion of the judges.
There are lots of awards beyond robot performance!
Judging- Coaches’ involvement
Judges will be on the lookout for
inappropriate coach involvement. It will
hurt the teams scoring.
Judges will ask questions like: “Who
decided <blank> ?” and “Who’s idea was it
to do <blank>?”
Coaches should not be the ones working
with the robot or the program at the
competition.
Gracious Professionalism
Gracious professionalism has
purposefully been left somewhat
undefined because it can and should
mean different things to each of us.
Some examples for me:
– Mutual respect and teamwork.
– Help other teams (loan parts, mentor)
– Cheer other teams’ successes: “cool robot!”
How I set my Coaching Limits
Don’t modify or generally even touch the robot
Don’t modify the program (don’t touch the
keyboard)
Solve only infrastructure problems, not the
challenge problems.
When you think something should be fixed, get
the team to do it, not you.
If they are really stuck talk them through it and
teach them how to debug problems.
When they ask “Should I do it this way?” I say:
“What do you think? Ask Nicky what he thinks.
How is this better? Try it and see if it works.”
New Coaches’ Training
Returning coaches are welcome to stay to
learn or contribute.
The Way This All Works…….
FIRST LEGO League provides the structure and
rules of the competition.
Local parents and volunteers set up, organize
and run the competition in a way that is fun and
fair, adhering to the FLL rules.
Los Altos Robotics was set up to run the Los
Altos competitions.
This training provides information about the local
competition and our advice on how you can
organize and coach your team.
What you need
A team of 4-10 kids; 9-14 years old
Location: need to choose a home to meet at. It is
best if it is always the same location so the
board remains undisturbed.
Table: order 4'x8' table from Los Altos Robotics
Challenge kit (order with your FLL registration)
Robot kits: at least one but it is best to have one
for each two kids (good to have extra LEGOs).
Computer(s): Best to have one computer for
each two team members and at least one
laptop to bring to competitions.
Meeting Schedule
2 meetings per week is recommended.
About 2 hours in duration; less time is inefficient
Schedule meetings to fit with other activities.
Fri/Sun seems to work well. Example: Friday
3:30 to 5:30 & Sunday 1:00 to 4:00.
Meetings may be more frequent closer to
competitions.
Coaches: add prep time to player commitment of
4-6 hours / week
Parent Involvement
Coach: the guide, project advisor, project
manager, not hands-on challenge solver - leave
it to the kids.
Asst. coach: supports coach in prep time and
team meetings. Could direct the research project
effort to offload the Coach.
Team manager: helps with team organization,
meeting scheduling and other admin activities.
Guest session by experienced team: It’s OK to
ask for help, especially helpful for new teams.
More than once during the season may be
helpful.
Volunteer to help out at the scrimmage and
competitions.
The Robot Challenge Kit
The challenge kit is shipped to teams that have
registered with FLL (a separate registration from
Los Altos Robotics). It includes:
– A 4’ x 8’ mat
– The Challenge Kit; several hundred LEGOs.
– A CD with the instructions for building the models
(about 200 pages in color).
– 3M Dual Lock Fasteners to attach the LEGO models
to the mat.
– There is a field setup guide announced with the
challenge telling where and how to attach the models
to the mat. It is important to do this properly and
precisely so that your team missions attempts will
work well on other tables.
The Robot Missions
The challenge is a set of “missions” which
are to be done by the robot on the playing
field. Your team’s robot has two minutes
and thirty seconds to score as many points
as possible up to a maximum of 400
points.
Read the 2008 challenge mission
description carefully and interpret it
literally. Don’t assume anything. Your team
needs to understand it.
In a competition two tables are set side by
side and there is a shared mission set up
on both tables this year.
The Rules
You and your team should also read “The Rules”
carefully. Note that any LEGOs are allowed, not
just those in the robot kit. Electrical parts are the
only thing that is restricted. Make sure that you
know what electrical parts are allowed (only one
“brick”, three motors, etc.)
Make sure that you and your team understand
and follow the rules for “The Base”. The base
where the robot is launched from. There are
penalties for touching the robot outside of the
base.
The score is determined at the end of the
match, by the condition of the field at that
time only.
Mission and Rule Clarifications
Check back periodically to look for updates to
the Q&A on the FLL web page.
The “Rules” page tells how to email questions
about the robot game part of the challenge. If
you think that your robot strategy might violate
the rules use this resource to get a clarification.
This is the only reliable source for correct
answers about the challenge. Answers are now
posted for all teams to consider.
Check regularly!
Competitions
The competitions are the opportunity for the kids to show
what they have accomplished and put their robots to the
test in a competitive environment.
At the competitions each team will have a schedule for
when they will run their robots, present their research
project, meet with the judges, and do their three robot
mission attempts.
Each team will have multiple robot missions runs of two
minutes and thirty seconds each (the time limit could
change this year, check the challenge). They will
compete with another team at an adjacent table to get as
many points as possible. Team match ups are rotated so
that your team will face three different teams.
Competitions
There is time between runs (usually around ½
hour) to repair problems and there are practice
tables available to help teams with last minute
checks and practices.
It is common for teams to have widely different
scores from run to run depending on how well
the robot performed that time. Don’t let them get
discouraged if they get a low score on their first
run.
Bring a computer to the competition in case you
need to reload the programs.
Bring extra legos to use to make needed
changes.
Competitions
The coaches manual has a very nicely detailed
section on “Awards and Judging Criteria”. Read
it well before the competitions so that you and
your team know what to expect.
Volunteers are needed to make the competitions
work. Parents from each team are expected to
volunteer.
For the Los Altos competitions the organizers
has recruited and developed a number of judges
but new ones are always needed.
Scrimmage
The Los Altos Scrimmage is October 14
from 1:00PM to 5:00PM at Blach School in
the Multipurpose room.
Your team should expect to be at the
scrimmage for the full 4 hours; there is a
lot to do and see.
The scrimmage is an opportunity to learn
how the competition works and see what
other teams are doing.
Scrimmage
Have your team ready to do whatever they can
do. Many teams only attempt one or two
missions at the scrimmage.
The scrimmage is scheduled early in the season
so that new teams really understand the local
competition in time to prepare for it.
Each team will have as many robot mission
attempts as time permits.
The scrimmage is not a full competition; there is
no team judging or project presentation.
Some informal awards presented on paper
certificates.
State Competition
64 Northern California teams met at the state
competition in Fremont last year. Each team will have
three robot mission attempts.
There is a fee to compete in the state competition. It is
run by volunteers but there are substantial expenses that
are not covered by sponsorships.
Lego Trophies are awarded to the top teams.
The 2008 State Competition is not scheduled yet. Check
the Los Altos Robotics or FLL web pages for updates.
Teams that don’t qualify to compete are encouraged to
attend the state competition. There is no admission fee
for spectators at any of the competitions.
Questions ?
MINDSTORM NXT
MINDSTORMS NXT
Rotation sensors integrated into the motors.
Programs are downloaded through a USB
cable.
NXT “brick” is “studless”; there are no lego
studs on it, only Lego technics connections.
Graphical programming interface (LABVIEW)
Requires 800Mhz Windows XP (there is a
workaround for slower machines) or 600Mhz
PowerPC Macintosh
Robot Construction
Your kit has instruction for building a simple
robot. That is a good starting point for a first year
team’s robot. Improve on it.
Make sure that it is a solid construction:
Triangles are stronger than rectangles so use
cross-bracing. Do drop testing…or have the
coach pick it up and see if it breaks.
Use multiple pegs to connect two beams for a
solid connection.
Learn all the ways to connect technic pieces and
axles; right angle connections are particular
important to understand.
Robot Construction
Axles are useful for light weight construction,
particularly for “arms” to manipulate objects.
Drive wheel should be treaded for traction. Turn
wheels or supports should be plastic to allow
them to slide.
Larger wheels make the robot go faster.
If your team has an idea for a completely new
robot build it with another kit and keep the old
one as a backup.
It helps to have a lot of technic style pieces to
build from. You can get more from:
– bricklink.com
– Ebay.com
NXT Programming
LABVIEW provides an easy way to:
– Enable motors by time or rotations
– Branch based on sensor input.
– Add comments
Coach them on a good naming and version
system for their programs.
The controller can give sensor readouts on its
display.
– You can push the robot and see how many rotations it
has made.
Debugging
Labview is pretty robust to the robot is usually
trying to do exactly what you told it to do.
Try running the robot with it’s wheels off of the
table to see what it is trying to do.
Make sure the wires are connected.
Add a beep or a wait between blocks in the
program to help track what is happening.
Debugging is one of the best learning
experiences they will have. But it can also be
very frustrating; go slow, think, and use
teamwork.
Navigation
Dead reckoning: start the robot in the
same place repeatably; be creative.
Align to the wall
Use light sensor to track the mat
(programming can be challenging)
Use the Lego objects on the mat.
Mission Strategy
Most teams use multiple programs which
each leave and return to base. This allows
an opportunity to retry or skip missions.
Most teams reconfigure the robot when it
comes back to base.
Make as few turns and the smallest turns
needed to improve accuracy.
Be creative!
Questions ?
Michael Schuh
Your Goals for the Team
Figure out what your goals are for your
team.
For me, my goals are for them to enjoy
building and programming robots so much
that they look forward to coming to the
meetings and want to do it again next
year.
All teams should have fun and do their
best.
Coaching Style
Keep it fun for the team.
I try to help children overcome hurdles that they
have been stuck on for an hour or so. I make a
few comments from time to time, but for the
most part I stay out of the way.
I encourage the children to take charge of the
meetings and run them. This works better with
older kids.
I try to get other parents to let the children do the
work. Let's face it, this robotics stuff is fun and it
is hard for the parents to let the children have all
the fun.
Things that have worked for me
Begin each meeting with a review of what happened at
the last meeting and what needs to be done at this
meeting. Keep it short.
Half way through the meeting and at the end of the
meeting, I get the team to run against the challenge.
Try to be positive. Try to keep a good ratio of good to
critical statements.
Use a timer to set up ten minute time slots to share the
computer(s), robots, and/or the playing field.
Teams need help understanding the time line of the
competition season. Print out a simple calendar that
shows all the weeks of the season with meetings,
holidays, and competitions labeled.
More Things that have worked
for me
Try to get the team members to pick out one or two
missions and own them. Then they are the ones that are
responsible for doing all of the building and programming
for that mission.
At the competitions, only two team members are allowed
at the table at a time. No coaches. Have the team
members cycle through the missions. Child 1 does
mission one and then child 2 trades places with her and
does mission 2 and so on.
A good schedule is to meet Friday evening or afternoon
right after school and Sunday afternoon at 1:00 PM for 2
to 2.5 hours.
Things to avoid:
Don‘t "help" the team see what is wrong with
their robot so that they can fix it and score more
points. Coaches and parents that do this end up
putting a lot of pressure on the team and the fun
goes out of FLL for the team.
I have seen teams where the coaches know way
too much about the robot. The coaches know
the entire construction and programming of the
robot. It is OK to help some; however, let the
team members do the fun building and
programming.
Meeting Plans: Set Goals
At the first meeting, have each team member
and the coaches talk about what their hopes and
goals are for the season and write them down.
For the 2006 season, our team's coaches' hopes
and goals were:
– That the team works together through the entire
season.
– That team members take on leadership roles in team
meetings.
– That team members learn to work with each other
and respect each other.
– That all individuals feel comfortable with voicing
ideas.
Meeting Plans: Set Goals
Some of my 2005 seventh grader team
members' goals and hopes were to:
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Do well in competition(s).
Have a calendar showing team meetings and times.
Work together well.
Have a build schedule and follow it.
Have after-hour sessions and do them.
Have positive enthusiastic encouragement.
Have good kit organization and return parts where
they go.
Meeting Plans: Getting Started
After recording your team's hopes and goals and
your robot kit arrives, go through the
programming training lessons with the team.
The team members usually love to put together
LEGO kits and are usually very good at it. This
can be a good break from the training exercises.
Once the game is announcedprint out the game
description and rules and go through them with
the team.
The FLL coaches guide talks about doing brain
storming to come up with good ideas, but I have
not had much luck with this. The kids can get
frustrated if the coach wants to them to talk too
much instead of working with the robot.
Meeting Plans: Ongoing
Once you have made it through the training,
exercises, building the playing field elements,
and understanding the game and the rules, most
of the meetings will be designing, building,
programming, and test runs.
Try and get the team to settle on a good base
structure for the robot as soon as possible so
that they can move on to design attachments
and program the robot.
Try to get the team to lock down their design a
few weeks before the tournaments and run their
robot over and over again to sort out the bugs.
Problem Team Members and
Parents
It is not uncommon for a team to have difficulty
with some team members or overly helpful
parents. Usually they respond well to clearly
defined boundaries and the problems are quickly
dealt with and go away. I suggest:
Deal with them directly because bad
experiences with fellow team members and
coaches are high on the list of reasons children
do not return for another season.
Talk to the person one-on-one out of ear shot of
the rest of the team or outside of team meeting
hours.
Problem Team Members and
Parents
If problems with a child persist for two or more
meetings, require one of the child's parents to be
there to take care of the child.
Have the child take a time out in another room or
call a parent and have them taken home.
If this does not work, remove them from the
team. While this is not fun to do, it may make
the difference between your child participating in
FLL again next year or not.
Michael Murray
Have you ever worked on a
project where:
The team members lacked experience with
the core technology to be utilized on the
project?
The team members had not worked with each
other before?
There was no clear leader for the team?
Some of the team members discovered they
didn't really want to be on the project?
Everyone thought things should be done
their way, but was inexperienced at
conveying their ideas to others?
Have you ever worked on a
project where:
There was far more work than time available?
The team members acted like children?
________________________
Under these circumstances, it would not be
surprising if the team made little progress
and the team members were unhappy.
Your job as coach is to guide your kids into a
successful team experience.
FLL is a great program because it exposes
kids to the issues that real engineers face in
developing products.
You'll need to decide what you want to teach:
Engineering research and design
Mechanical design: Structures, sensors,
drive trains, friction, stress
Real-time programming
Design options: Speed vs. precision, sensors
vs. dead reckoning,
Mission groupings, manipulator strategies
Improving a design: Theory vs. tinkering
Design of experiments to resolve uncertainty
Creativity: Generating alternatives
Project management
Breaking a project into phases
Exploration vs. planning
Managing project scope and schedule
Dividing work among team members;
integrating individual efforts
Robot design
Robot running
Project presentation
Version control
Teamwork values
Perseverance
Mutual support
Accepting responsibility
Dealing with mistakes
Synergy
Understanding different working styles
Mutual support
Questions ?
Crowd Control
Team Size
– Generally 4-6 members is a good size
– 3 members can compete but there is more
work
– 4 works well for us
2 pairs
Rotate tasks so both pairs are building and
programing
Crowd Control
Motivation
– Younger participants
Lots of encouragement and guidance
Celebrate accomplishments
– Older participants
Lots of encouragement and guidance
Generally are returning and therefore are aware of
the challenges
Internally motivated
Crowd Control
Team Member Harmony
– If two participants are not getting along, try to
point out anything that is similar between
them as it occurs
Solved the problem the same way
Wear the same shoes
– They will begin to realize that they aren’t that
different
Crowd Control
Disruptive Behavior
– Discuss with the individual
– Ask them to leave the room for awhile and burn some
energy
– Discuss with parents
– Ask their parent to attend the meeting
– Ask them not to participate any longer
Overly helpful parents: Usually they respond well
to clearly defined boundaries. Talk to the person
one-on-one out of ear shot of the team or
outside of team meeting hours.
Crowd Control
Food
– Kids eat a lot at this age!!!
– Be sure that the parents know to have given
them a snack before sending them to practice
– During a two hour practice, take a 10-minute
break midway through and provide a healthy
snack
Snacks can be supplied by the various parents
Questions
Returning Coaches: What did we forget to
present? What do you wish that somebody
told you before your first season?
New Coaches: What was confusing ?
General Questions
Closing Remarks