Over the weekend of the 16th and 17th of June, AURA team members volunteered at a FIRST Lego League (FLL) event held at ACG Strathallan in Papakura. FLL is a competition run for students ages nine to sixteen, and is a completely autonomous competition. Lego “Mindstorms” robots, built and programmed by the students, try to complete as many “missions” as possible from a set of fifteen, within a two and a half minute timeframe. These missions are based around a different topic each year – this event was for the 2011/2012 season game “Food Factor”. They involved tasks such as collecting objects and carrying them back to the starting zone, turning the dial on a Lego clock, and finishing the game in a certain place on the field.
On Saturday, ten teams from around New Zealand met to build, finish and improve on their robots for the Sunday competition. Four AURA team members circulated amongst the students to help with their robots, programming, and strategy. Two of these teams were brand-new to the competition, with this as their first event. AURA members took enthusiastically to the task of training these new students, with both teams successfully competing on Sunday the 17th with well-built, reliable robots and programs to match. Other teams at the event were more experienced, having competed during the last season, but they too appreciated and benefitted from AURA help, in areas such as more complex programming tasks or in-game strategy discussions. Two AURA members also visited the FIRST Tech Challenge team who were working in another room and discussed their robot design ideas for their current competition.
On Sunday the FLL competition began. Fourteen teams from various parts of the North Island of New Zealand competed in the event, while five AURA members worked as referees, scorers and field re-setters for the day, along with continuing their mentoring work with both the new and the more experienced teams. Each team competed multiple times in an effort to beat both their own scores, and those of the other teams. After an astounding effort from everyone involved, the event was eventually won by the ACG Strathallan College team.
The officials who run FLL in New Zealand were very appreciative of the help AURA offered, and our thanks go out to them for being such welcoming hosts. We hope to continue to work with the FLL teams as the year progresses, when more competitions are held in Auckland.
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