1996 - LEGO Workshop 1




Introduction

The first LEGO workshop was held at UQ in April, and the second in July, 1996.

The event was run by Gordon Wyeth of the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department of the University of Queensland.

Competition rules

The competition rules are now available.

There are also photos of the event.

Workshop Resources

Each team is provided with the following:

Microcontroller.
The team is provided with a ready-to-run circuit board. This board is an original inhouse design called the UQBOT board. It uses surface mount technology to reduce board area and complexity. It is based on the 6811 "Rug Warrior" designed by Anita Flynn and Joseph Jones in their book "Mobile Robots: From Inspiration to Implementation".

Sensors.
The participants are provided with a variety of sensors that are capable of detecting the competition environment. The sensors are compatible with the UQBOT interface.

Batteries.
The groups are given rechargeable batteries to use with their robot.

LEGO Technic Bricks, Gears, Motors and Wheels.
The LEGO bricks provide the structure of the robot. The gears are used to interface the motors to the wheels. The motors may be plugged into the UQBOT board.

Interactive C.
Interactive C (IC) is an interpreted version of C written by Randy Sargeant and Anne Wright of MIT. The UQBOT board is compatible with this version of IC. IC provides a programming environment which enables a robot builder to easily test ideas, while providing support for complex programming techniques.

PC
Each group has a PC for programming the robot. The PC is connected to the robot by a serial cable with a modular plug.