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 Overview

 
    The LEGO Robotiers are the FLL Team from, and sponsored by Sector 2.   The 2008-09 FLL Season was their rookie season, and considering that did fairly good.  The 2008-09 theme was "Climate Connections" with challenges and a project based on the climate.  The Robot Game part involved a series of very of difficult missions to accomplish.  From raising a house out of flood waters, deploying levy blocks, delivering scientists and an Ice Core drill, to even collecting and storing Carbon Molecules from the atmosphere.
 
   The project portion of it involved creating a 5-minute long report on the climate, and what we can do to improve it.  This part of the challenge is where we suffered considerably.  We focused to much on the Robot Game and did not give the project as much effort as we should have.  We also did not have all of our programs 100% operational by the time of the first championship.
 
   Despite the grim outlook, the team really pulled together in the end.  They really worked hard and we improved considerably from second to last, to second in the Robot Game.  But our project didn't quite cut it.  Therefore we never advanced beyond the first state tournament.  However because we did improve so greatly, we won the Rookie Team Award.  Which was quite an accomplishment in itself.
 
  Now with all that we learned, the LEGO Robotiers are back for the 2009 Smart Move season.  This time we did a lot better then last year.  We worked better overall as a Team, and got a really good project.  Tournament day came as fast as it did last time, but this time we were actually ready for it.  We weren't so sure how we were going to do, because several of our programs failed during two of the matches, placing us 5th or 6th in the Robot Game.  Plus we thought we were only about average on the project, technical judging, and team work judging.
  At the end of the day they began to anounce the award winners.  It looked pretty grim for us as awards were getting passed out.  We weren't too concerned though, we all had fun, and it was a great experience.  At the end they came to the final award, the Champions Award, which is awarded to teams who do well overall.  They anounced the first runner-up (the equivelent of 2nd place overall) LEGO Robotiers!  Our hearts all skipped a beat.  We went up and recieved our award, still in shock.  It looks like we're going to State!
 
12/20/10
  The LEGO Robotiers completed their season by competing at the State FLL tournements in Hillsboro Oregon.  They Placed 3rd in Teamwork, and around 15th of 60 overall.  They had a great season this year, and now have a LEGO trophy to display with their other two trophies.  CONGRATS TO ALL THE LEGO ROBOTIERS!
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

History
 
  Late in 2007 the newly created Community Science Outreach Program was looking for ways in which it could carry out it's mission.  It needed a way to be active in the science, and to thereby prove that Christianity and science do in fact go together.  It also needed a way to involve the general community in this endeavor. 
  The idea of hosting First LEGO League teams was then looked into.  It was soon decided to try out a test team to see how it might work.  Because the C.A.A. was at that point in time going through the Great Reorganization, and was not yet ready to fully function yet, the C.A.A. connection to the team was not well known or advertised.  However despite the fact that the C.A.A. really was not fully ready to support such a program at that time, CSOP was authorized to create a test program, and to operate it for one season.
   Thus the LEGO Robotiers were officially born.  Their goal was to evaluate the possibility and fesibility of CSOP operating FLL Teams.  It was also to act as a pattern for any future C.A.A.
sponsored FLL Teams.  The LEGO Robotiers officially began by participating in the 2008 Climate Connections season, and received a Rookie Team award at the conclusion of that season.
   Because of it's innitial success, and lessons learned; at the end of the 2008 season, it was decided to extend the life of the LEGO Robotiers test program one more year to include the 2009 Smart Move season.
   Beyond the 2009 Season, the future of the LEGO Robotiers has yet to be decided.  During the first year of it's existence it was very disorganized, and was an intense learning process.  The second year organization got a lot better.  This was mainly due to the fact that the C.A.A. in general was now ready to operate on the new system.  This gave them ability to support the Robotiers more so then they had been able to do in 2008.  With the advent of the new system, and things like the website, and forums, the LEGO Robotiers became more incorporated within the C.A.A.  Operating as a part of the larger organization, rather then a seperate entity.
   Because of the process involved in setting up and learning how to operate a FLL team, members of the LEGO Robotiers were mostly limited to people already associated with Sector 2 during it's first two test seasons.  But this would change if the Robotiers became a reguler program with Sector 2.
  The overall success of the LEGO Robotiers program has not gone unoticed.  It is a great program and ministry, and is within the bounds of the organization's current capability.  But it does have its drawbacks.  During the coarse of the 2009 season external interest in the program was evaluated, and it was determined that there is sufficient interest to support the team in the future.  The test period for the program officially ends at the end of the 2009 season.  After which it will be up to the jurisdiction of the C.A.A. Council to decide whether the program becomes a permament part of Sector 2, or gets dropped.
  The LEGO Robotier program has now officially ended, and it's future pending a Council decision.
 
UPDATE: The LEGO Robotiers Program has been temporarily terminated due to budgetary and staffing concerns.

2009 Season

 

  For the 2009 season, the theme was "Smart Move" and was focused on transportation.  The goals of the topic was to address issues concerning transportation and vehicles.  The challenge was to design a robot that was capable of accomplishing tasks that a real life vehicle might have to accomplish while being designed.  The Project required Teams to find and research a transportation issue or problem in their area, and figure out a solution for the problem.

 

The Robot Game

  The Robot game was all about the many challenges real life vehcles must face, and the obstacles that must be considered whent they are designed.  The challenges included a bridge which the robot could crawl over.  A Truck on a ramp that the robot could set off, to test impacts.  Hoops the robot had to navigate to, collect, and bring back to base.  Indicators that had to be set off by hitting them, and numerous obstacles to hinder the robot.  Althought the challenges were tough, and as usual the repeatability was a pain to get, the team really came up with some inovative solutions to the problems presented.  Including a special set of arms for picking up the rings, and a slide contraption to deploy the people to their scoring area.  Unfortunatly during the tornament, many programs failed for unkown reasons, and are currently being revisited.  Repeatability seems to be the biggest issue, and they are working hard to figure out a way to make the programs more repeatable.

 

The Project

  This years project as usual coincided with the theme of the Robot Game.  It was to first analyze and research transportation in your area.  From there you would identify a transportation problem.  And based on inovative and new ideas, come up with a solution to that problem.

   The LEGO Robotiers chose the overall lack of bus service available to us in this area.  They did research over the internet to get data about the current bus service, and about transportation in general for this area.  They even arranged to talk to a public relations officer from Lane Transit District (But only after the qualifying tournament, as we were unable to reach LTD before hand).  From there they built their project around presenting their facts, and solutions as well as explaining the local transportation situation.  They went on to take home Third Place in Teamwork, and 15th place overall in State.  CONGRATULATIONS LEGO ROBOTIERS!