If you haven’t seen the YouTube channel put out by Vienna Robotics, I highly recommend having a look. They’ve made some very good tutorial videos on NXT programming and FLL robotics. Their most recent video is about making a proportional line-following “My-block” that can follow a line very smoothly. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SE5iqbW2Zvc A couple of weeks ago, one of my team members found their YouTube tutorial videos while searching for information on line following (which is something we’ve been hoping to figure out this season). Using the tutorial as guidance, he was able to make a “proportional” line following My-block which he demonstrated at our team meeting last weekend using his own robot. I was amazed by how smoothly the robot was able to follow the line using the proportional algorithm. I’m a programmer by profession, and my long-standing impression of the NXT programming language was that it was a clunky toy that was only suited to doing very basic things: Move, Stop, Pivot, Stop, Make a noise, etc.. My impression of the graphical programming interface was that it was an utter abomination. After watching the Vienna Robotics videos, I have mostly changed my opinion of NXT-G. The language is actually not nearly as limited as I thought and I must admit its graphical nature makes it easier for first-time programmers to understand. Evidently, My-blocks (the programming equivalent of subroutines) are the key to unlocking the advanced / hidden capabilities of this language. And as expected, in order to use My-blocks you have to put forth considerable effort to get past the clunky and quirky graphical interface. Fortunately, there’s also a very helpful and detailed video describing how to make and use My-blocks on the Vienna Robotics YouTube channel. My team is excited about adding line-following capabilities to their robot. I’m pretty excited that despite the almost unbearable NXT software, a couple of my team members (my eldest son included) have learned how to implement a proportional line-follower. But more importantly, I’m happy that they understand and are able to explain how the algorithm works and how its performance can be tweaked. The video did an excellent job of explaining how the algorithm works. The proportional line follower is actually a fairly powerful feedback control system which is well beyond the complexity that I guessed was achievable using the NXT software. Coincidentally, I remember meeting the entire Vienna Robotics team (and coaches too) back in 2011 at the FRC robotics competition at the WashingtonConvention Center. There was a booth set up by VA/DC FLL where the Vienna Robotics team was demonstrating their pretty cool robot that had a forklift. Fortunately, they made a nice video about that robot: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nRejVbNvn1k I took my two sons to the FIRST competition to see the big robots made by high-school kids, but they found the little LEGO robots to be waaaayyyyyyy more fun to watch. We were amazed by how cool LEGO robots could be – we had no idea! At the time, I had never heard of FLL or Mindstorms. It makes me wonder why LEGO doesn’t advertise their robotics kits on TV?!?. We hung around the VA/DC FLL booth for a long time watching them demonstrate their robot running its missions. I knew my sons were hooked when they started asking for a LEGO Mindstorms set. The Vienna Robotics girls were very enthusiastic and were great ambassadors for FLL: patiently explaining the details of the robot game and their project all the while demonstrating gracious professionalism. I think it’s wonderful that one of the girls from the team has taken the time (even after her team has retired from FLL) to pass on knowledge to current teams. The videos go beyond the norm of just showing their robot doing some cool things. They are focused on teaching kids how to write software to make their own robot do cool things too. I recommend their YouTube channel as an excellent resource for teams wanting to learn more advanced programming techniques. Pete Zulkarnain Assistant Coach P.S. I've only recently joined the list, so I apologize if I am mentioning something that's already been discussed. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE or CHANGE your settings, please visit https://listserv.jmu.edu/archives/vadcfll-l.html and select "Join or leave the list". -- VADCFLL administrative announcements are sent via VADCFLL-ANNOUNCEMENTS-L. Visit https://listserv.jmu.edu/archives/vadcfll-ANNOUNCEMENTS-l.html to subscribe.