Did you know that there are LEGO MINDSTORMS clubs in cities and towns across the globe? These clubs are organized by MINDSTORMS fans in local areas, and they often hold meetings and organize local events and competitions.

One such event is Brick Heap Wars that the members of SMART (Seatlle MINDSTORMS and Robotics Techies) held last month as part of Robothon at the Seattle Center (in Seatlle Washington, USA).

BrickHeap Wars is a competition where you build (in a team) a robot for a specific task. The challenge is not revealed until the start of the event, so team members must bring LEGO MINDSTORMS elements and a computer to program with, and be prepared for… well… anything!

On September 22nd, SMART ran its 9th BrickHeaps Wars competition, the second they held at Robothon. The challenge (announced at the event) was to build a robot to repair the potholes in a stretch of LEGO highway. Teams had 4 hours to build and program a robot with the pieces provided by SMART. 4 teams participated.

The final results were:

1st Place (yellow): Craigs List - 447 points (SMART, Redmond, WA) 2nd Place (red): Team Pwn - 427 points (PWN Industries, Seattle, WA) 3rd Place (blue): Team Hassenplug - 399 points (Hassenplug family, West Lafayette, Indiana) 4th Place (grey): Mack Elementary - 231 points (Mack Elementary FIRST LEGO League team, Woodinville, WA)

The Craigs List team was captained by Craig Zupke, and consisted of a number of people from SMART. These are the veterans of BrickHeap Wars, having participated in a number of previous events. Running like a finely tuned LEGO robot, they finished their entry over half an hour before the deadline. Their robot was extremely consistent, scoring 447 on both runs.

Team PWN members came from PWN Industries, a Seattle company. Their members had little or no prior experience building LEGO MINDSTORMS robots. They heard about the competition two weeks before the event, thought it would be fun, and bought themselves a MINDSTORMS set to practice with. Their comment at the beginning of the event was they hoped they wouldn’t be PWNed, but by the end they were very happy with their results. Early on, one team member spent fifteen minutes mathematically analysing the scoring system to figure out what would be the best solution to the problem.

Team Hassenplug came from out of town to participate in this event. Their captain, Steve Hassenplug, famous for his balancing Legway robot, as well as many others, came to Robothon to participate in as many events as possible. He wanted to show the ‘metal and circuit board’ breed of robotic fans on the west coast what you could do with LEGO robots. BrickHeap Wars was the only event that was only for LEGO robots, so it was a nice break. Their robot was the only one that made any significant attempt to actually finding the potholes before filling them.

Finally, the Mack Elementary FLL team thought it would be a great way to gain experience in building robots for their First LEGO League competition later this year. They made several false starts, not settling on their final robot design until less than an hour before the deadline. However, they had the greatest increase in scores between the two rounds, scoring only 13 points the first round, with some improvements to their robot, they managed to get 231 points on their second attempt half an hour later. Who knows what another half hour would have bought them?

The audience loved the event, and a fair number asked how to participate next year. A lot of people related to the state of the LEGO highway, making comparisons to the real freeways they regularly use on their commute (an actual a car-swallowing sinkhole in Seattle inspired the event). After the first round, one person commented that the robots fairly accurately reflected the repair methods used by the city (a funny compliment if you saw these robots in action).

This story was contributed by MINDSTORMS Community Partner David Schilling, who also runs SMART.
Did you know that there are LEGO MINDSTORMS clubs in cities and towns across the globe? These clubs are organized by MINDSTORMS fans in local areas, and they often hold meetings and organize local events and competitions.

One such event is Brick Heap Wars that the members of SMART (Seatlle MINDSTORMS and Robotics Techies) held last month as part of Robothon at the Seattle Center (in Seatlle Washington, USA).

BrickHeap Wars is a competition where you build (in a team) a robot for a specific task. The challenge is not revealed until the start of the event, so team members must bring LEGO MINDSTORMS elements and a computer to program with, and be prepared for… well… anything!

On September 22nd, SMART ran its 9th BrickHeaps Wars competition, the second they held at Robothon. The challenge (announced at the event) was to build a robot to repair the potholes in a stretch of LEGO highway. Teams had 4 hours to build and program a robot with the pieces provided by SMART. 4 teams participated.

The final results were:

1st Place (yellow): Craigs List - 447 points (SMART, Redmond, WA) 2nd Place (red): Team Pwn - 427 points (PWN Industries, Seattle, WA) 3rd Place (blue): Team Hassenplug - 399 points (Hassenplug family, West Lafayette, Indiana) 4th Place (grey): Mack Elementary - 231 points (Mack Elementary FIRST LEGO League team, Woodinville, WA)

The Craigs List team was captained by Craig Zupke, and consisted of a number of people from SMART. These are the veterans of BrickHeap Wars, having participated in a number of previous events. Running like a finely tuned LEGO robot, they finished their entry over half an hour before the deadline. Their robot was extremely consistent, scoring 447 on both runs.

Team PWN members came from PWN Industries, a Seattle company. Their members had little or no prior experience building LEGO MINDSTORMS robots. They heard about the competition two weeks before the event, thought it would be fun, and bought themselves a MINDSTORMS set to practice with. Their comment at the beginning of the event was they hoped they wouldn’t be PWNed, but by the end they were very happy with their results. Early on, one team member spent fifteen minutes mathematically analysing the scoring system to figure out what would be the best solution to the problem.

Team Hassenplug came from out of town to participate in this event. Their captain, Steve Hassenplug, famous for his balancing Legway robot, as well as many others, came to Robothon to participate in as many events as possible. He wanted to show the ‘metal and circuit board’ breed of robotic fans on the west coast what you could do with LEGO robots. BrickHeap Wars was the only event that was only for LEGO robots, so it was a nice break. Their robot was the only one that made any significant attempt to actually finding the potholes before filling them.

Finally, the Mack Elementary FLL team thought it would be a great way to gain experience in building robots for their First LEGO League competition later this year. They made several false starts, not settling on their final robot design until less than an hour before the deadline. However, they had the greatest increase in scores between the two rounds, scoring only 13 points the first round, with some improvements to their robot, they managed to get 231 points on their second attempt half an hour later. Who knows what another half hour would have bought them?

The audience loved the event, and a fair number asked how to participate next year. A lot of people related to the state of the LEGO highway, making comparisons to the real freeways they regularly use on their commute (an actual a car-swallowing sinkhole in Seattle inspired the event). After the first round, one person commented that the robots fairly accurately reflected the repair methods used by the city (a funny compliment if you saw these robots in action).

This story was contributed by MINDSTORMS Community Partner David Schilling, who also runs SMART.