AIAA Utah Section Supports Local Robotics Team

摘要

The Intergalactic Bionic Porcupines First Lego League (FLL) robotics team received the Utah State Champion's recognition and is going to the FIRST World Robotics Festival in Houston this April to represent the state of Utah and as one of the representatives of the United States. FLL is for kids ages 9-14 and teaches them STEM activities such as building and programming a robot and presenting original project research. Over 270 teams participate in FLL in Utah and 32,000 across the world. This year's FLL theme was improving long duration spaceflight. The robot game missions imitated space-related activities such as asteroid deflection, rescuing an astronaut, and crossing a simulated Mars crater. The team builds their autonomous robot using the EV3 Lego processor, which is programmed in a version of Lab View. The EV3 Lego processor drives attachments of Lego Technic parts built by the kids to perform the robot game missions. In researching their project, the team met with astronauts, attended the Small Sat Conference at Utah State University, and spoke with NASA experts. The team prepared original research for their project by making and testing bricks and tools from simulated Mars soil (provided by University of Central Florida). Working with the University of Utah and Salt Lake Community College, the team manufactured and evaluated the strength of bricks and tools made from Mars simulated soil using 3D printing technology and various binders.