Robo-Ranger Alert: Mission 1

This is a Robo-Ranger Alert! 

Robo-Rangers, we need your help!  Chrono-Agent Jessica Watt's Time Van has broken down in a dangerous area of an imperial future time period.  What's worse, imperial soldiers have found her and are demanding the power source to her Wini-Bago Time Van!

Fortunately Jes's companion TX-O managed to transmit the alert to us along with an overview of the area.

Send in a robot to assist Agent Watt.  Here are the goals of your mission:

1. Secure the area around Jes by disabling the imperial soldiers with weapons
   (1 point per soldier knocked over)
2. Take out their leader so he can't report back.
   (2 points for knocking over soldier w/o weapon)
3. Do not disrupt Jes, TX-O, or the Time Van.  
   (1 point if Jes, Van, or TX-O are not moved/knocked over)

Tactical Overview provided by TX-O

Don't forget the restrictions on any of our missions Robo-Ranger:

• We can send a robot through the time stream, but it is very unstable and will return to our time period in just 2 minutes. Therefore as a Robo-Ranger you only ever have 2 minutes to compete a task.
• We can't keep a constant signal to our robot, which means it must be programmed, we can't control it remotely.
• If the robot fails, it can be reset, but only to its starting location.  We can do this as often as we like within our 2 minute window.
• Once the 2 minutes runs out, we've got to recharge our transmission equiptment for a full day, which means if we didn't help our agent, they're probably on their own.
• TX-O has highlighted the starting location, where we can transmit your robot, in blue.  Therefore your robot must start between the blue objects.

Good luck on your first mission Robo-Ranger, Jes is depending on you!

Secure the area so Jes can get time to repair the Time Van.

Adventures of Jessica Watt, Chrono Agent: Overview

This is Chrono Agent Jessica Watt, her mission: restore order to the time stream.  To do this she travels through time via her Time Van: the Wini-Bago accompanied by her trusty synthetic side kick "TIME-X-Observer" or TX-O for short.

 From time to time Agent Watt runs into trouble, and that's where we come in: The Robo-Rangers  at Chrono-Command.  We have the ability to send a robot through the time stream to assist our Chrono Agents if they get into a jam.  But there are limits:

• We can send a robot through the time stream, but it is very unstable and will return to our time period in just 2 minutes. Therefore as a Robo-Ranger you only ever have 2 minutes to compete a task.
• We can't keep a constant signal to our robot, which means it must be programmed, we can't control it remotely.
• If the robot fails, it can be reset, but only to its starting location.  We can do this as often as we like within our 2 minute window.
• Once the 2 minutes runs out, we've got to recharge our transmission equiptment for a full day, which means if we didn't help our agent, they're probably on their own.
• TX-O has highlighted the starting location, where we can transmit your robot, in blue.  Therefore your robot must start between the blue objects.

Welcome to the team Robo-Ranger, learn your equipment well, Jessica is depending on you.

Jes's companion: TX-O

Volcanos

 We have many natural disasters on Earth. One is the volcano. These can be very dangerous if not taken care of. We may be able to stop volcanic eruptions if we learn even more about how they start. Usually, it is because of the Earth’s plates. When they move and collide magma from under the crust rises. If a volcano is already there, the magma will rise inside the volcano eventually, coming out of the top. This is a common way for a volcano to erupt. There is a second way a volcano can erupt though. If a volcano is not there the crust will rise around the magma slowly with it creating the outer layers of a volcano. Most volcanos only erupt once too three times, but not always. They will erupt more depending on their location. We need to find ways to stop these or block them from destroying human and natural areas.

The first step to try and help is to research the problem. It will be hard to help protect and stop something if we know nothing about it. After that decide on what problem you want to fix. This is because when volcanoes erupt not only the magma can destroy the land. The rocks flying out from the explosion and landslides that may happen when the magma is pouring out. The third step is to create a design and talk to people that may know more about volcanos then you already found out. If you end up talking to someone you can ask them certain questions related to what you want to stop. When your design is done you can look up ways that have already been made to stop volcanic eruptions. Make sure your design is not already in use. Next you should figure out the price range your idea is in. If it is billions of dollars then you might stop volcanos but make taxes and other things to rise . Think about this for a little while. A more optional step is to see what volcano your design will work best with. Some volcanoes may have more landslides than others. Some might  have more magma, you can never tell. The rest is up to you! You can share your design with other people or send it to a volcanic expert and see if they also think it is a good idea.

Something to think about when a volcano erupts is that the plates that collide are most of the times under the sea. If the plates collide correctly, it can start a tsunami. This is not a small problem. Luckily, it does not happen too often. An area that volcanoes tend to erupt often is called the ring of fire. This is a half circle of volcanoes located around the pacific ocean. Hawaii is located in the ring of fire. This is because it is near the center of the half circle. In fact, Hawaii is a couple of volcanos. Most islands are volcanoes that once the magma cooled and hardened dirt got on top of it. Then grass grew, trees sprouted, and birds might even start migrating there! Sometime if humans discover these they will move three as well. Volcanos are not all bad. They create homes for us even if they also destroy them. We only need to find a way for them to stop destroying homes but keep making them. Even if it takes a long time. 

Now you may be wondering “Why are volcanoes on a page for robots?” That’s because the table is natures fury. If you enter FIRST LEGO LEAGUE you have to make a five minute speech about how to prevent a natural disaster. We are not entering the competition this year so this is an idea and tips on what you can do if you are or want to do something fun in your free time if you aren't!

                                          Check back later for info that may be coming soon!

              -Rose Wakelin (Age 11)             

Building The Robot

Building a robot is a lot of work.Especially when you are working with other people.The first step is to decide what challenges you want to do or things you want your robot to do.Then think of a way to get your robot do that.There are two things you need to make robot do something. One is a robot and the other is programming. They are both really easy if you know what to use and how to do it.Also, whatever your robot design is make sure you have pieces to build it.I think  the hardest part about building a robot is thinking up a design for your robot, especially the wheels or tracks.It took me and my sister Rose  a couple of days to decide if we were going to use the  wheels or tracks. I  thought wheels and Rose thought tracks so we tested both ideas and tracks won because the back wheels on the robot didn't turn very well.Another hard part about building a robot is the claws or whatever your robot uses to pick up stuff with.The hardest part about that is finding a way to keep the claw up.

                                                     Check later for more bye!

                                                         Kit Wakelin (Age 9)

Track System

Table Construction

We built the challenge table out of polystyrene so it would be light.  Dad had to help us because we had to use power tools.