Welcome to RoboDesigners!
RoboDesigners is a site for young people who are interested in designing, building, and programming robots. Our mission is to inspire our visitors and provide them with helpful resources.
RoboDesigners Competes at World Championship
On April 18-21, RoboDesigners competed at the 2012 VEX Robotics World Championship. Held in Anaheim, California, the event hosted 600 VEX teams ranging in age from middle school to college. RoboDesigners placed 21st out of 99 teams in the Engineering division with a 7-3 record, playing against two of the three teams that won the World Champion title.
Event results can be found on the Championship main page.
Getting ready for the VEX World Championship
RoboDesigners is busily preparing for the VEX Robotics World Championship to be held April 19-21 in Anaheim, California. We invite you to follow us on Twitter and our Blog for updates on how our team is doing. You can also tune in via webcast at this link during the competition. If you are in the area, we will be in the Anaheim Convention Center in Halls A & B.
This is an exciting event as 400 High School VEX Robotics teams from around the World will be forming alliances and competing to see which teams are the best in the world. In addition, new VEX parts will be announced and for sale in the VEX store, and next year’s challenge will be announced.
We expect to compete in 9-10 qualifying rounds and hopefully make it to the elimination rounds. We are entering our Engineering Notebook for the Design Award. We have also submitted an essay for the Community Award.
This is so much fun and we learn so much at each event! If you are not part of a robotics team find one or start one. If you have questions, please ask. We’d love to help.
RoboDesigners at UVa's High School Programming Competition
RoboDesigners (Andrew Norton) competed at the High School Programming Competition held at University of Virginia on March 17, 2012. A one man team competing against teams of four, he placed 5th out of 17 teams, solving 6 out of 10 problems. (See problems here.) For a detailed description of our day, see our blog.
Please see our Programming Resources page for information on upcoming tournaments and ways to prepare.
RoboDesigners Wins Design Award at VMAC
RoboDesigners 2190 won the Design Award out of the nearly 80 teams competing at the VEX Mid-Atlantic Championship (VMAC) on March 10. RoboDesigners seeded 3rd with a 7-1-0 record, and was selected by team 5225A, the E-Bots Pi-lons, to join the 1st seeded alliance. They made it to the division's final round.
Results from the tournament are on VEXScores.com.
RoboDesigners Wins Tournament Champion Award
RoboDesigners 2190 competed at the Liberty University VRC Regional on March 3rd, 2012. With a 4-2-0 record, we placed 6th of about 25 teams. The Twisted Botz, Team 177B, selected us to form the 1st seeded alliance. Our alliance successfully defended the title of 1st place and became Tournament Champions.
Pictures of the tournament can be seen on our Picasa Web Album.
RoboDesigners Wins Excellence and Design Awards!
RoboDesigners competed at the Central VA VRC tournament on February 11th, 2012. 2190D won the Excellence Award, and our other team, 2190, won the Design Award. Both awards qualify the teams to compete at the VEX World Championship. Out of nearly 50 teams, 2190D seeded 4th, and captained the 3rd seeded alliance; their alliance with 12R brought them to semifinals. For pictures of this event, visit our Picasa Web Album.
NOVA VRC Tournament - December 3, 2011
RoboDesigners competed at the NOVA VRC Tournament on December 3, 2011. We won all but one qualifying match during the day, with a record of 5-1. The TwistedBotz selected us to form the 3rd seeded alliance. We made it to semi-finals, but had technical difficulties which prevented us from advancing further. We won a Judges' Award. For more information about the event, click here.
RoboDesigners Begins Gateway Season
RoboDesigners has officially begun its Gateway season. We are strategizing and prototyping robot designs.
FIRST LEGO League Coaches' Workshop
To access the workshop website, click here.
RoboDesigners members presented at the 2011 Lynchburg FLL Coaches' Workshop. The workshop was held on September 10th. Thanks to Apress and LEGO Education for some great door prizes! For more information, click here.
VEX 2011-2012 Gateway is Released!
The new VRC game, Gateway, was released at the VRC World Championship. For more information about the game, visit the Gateway page on the VEXwiki.
RoboDesigners Presents to Boy Scout Troop 211
On May 24, RoboDesigners presented VEX and FIRST robotics to Boy Scout Troop 211. The scouts had opportunities to drive the VEX robots, and learned about robotics competitions for middle and high school students.
RoboDesigners Shares VEX with Bedford County Schools
RoboDesigners demonstrated VEX Robotics at Liberty, Staunton River, and Jefferson Forest high schools on May 9 and 12, 2011.
RoboDesigners Competes at the VRC World Championship
RoboDesigners, team 2190D, competed at the VRC World Championship in Orlando, Florida on April 14-16. We had a great time, and saw many incredible robots. At the end of qualifiers, we ranked 18th of 104 in the Math division.
Congratulations to all the award winners. We're looking forward to next year!
Watch movies taken at the Championship on our YouTube Channel.
RoboDesigners Wins Judges' Award at Liberty University VEX Competition
RoboDesigners team 2190 competed at the Liberty University VEX Competition, held on March 26, 2011. We were undefeated throughout the qualifiers, and seeded 1st place. Unfortunately, we lost by one point in the semi-finals. However, we still won the Judges' Award, which is awarded to a team that the judges think deserves special recognition for their performance.
We congratulate teams 33, the Mavericks, and 1851B, the Southside Vexters, for winning first place. We also congratulate the Twisted Botz on winning the Excellence Award. Many thanks to all the volunteers who made this event possible.
Pictures of the tournament can be found on VEXsouth.com.
Watch videos of some of the matches on our YouTube Channel. (More to come!)
RoboDesigners Wins Tournament Champion Award at Central Virginia VRC Regional
David Norton, a.k.a. Team 2190D, joined Teams 12B and 12D to form the 1st Place Alliance at the Central Virginia VRC Tournament on February 5, 2011. The alliance was undefeated in all six of the elimination matches. David qualified to advance to the World Championship, to be held in April at the Epcot Center in Orlando, Florida.
Andrew Norton, Team 2190, seeded 15th in the qualifying matches. ACME 12G selected him to join the third place alliance, along with ACME 12M.
RoboDesigners Competes at VRC ROTEC Qualifier
Our VEX Robotics Competition (VRC) team, RoboDesigners (Team #2190) competed at the Roanoke Regional Robotics Qualifier on January 15. We were featured on WDBJ7, a local news channel. Watch the story here.
RoboDesigners will compete at the Central Virginia VRC Regional on February 5 and the Liberty University Competition on March 26.
See pictures of us building our robots!
ACME Robotics wins 1st Place Project Award at State Championship
Pictured above are team members James, Andrew, Ian, and David.
ACME Robotics competed at the VA/DC FLL State Championship on December 4-5. We won the 1st place Project Presentation Award for Division 2. Congratulations to Ashburn Robotics for advancing to the FIRST World Festival!
ACME Robotics - Lynchburg Regional Champions!
Pictured above are team members Ian, James, Andrew, and David.
ACME Robotics competed at the Lynchburg Regional Tournament on November 6. We won both the 1st Place Champion's Award and the 1st Place Robot Performance Award with a top score of 250 points. The team with the next highest score was the Panda Bears, with 210 points.
Read the story in the Botetourt View.
View pictures taken by CVCC.
Many thanks to the Central Virginia Community College for sponsoring our team, whose continued support has been critical for our success.
RoboDesigners at the Future Focus Expo
For more pictures, see our
Picasa Album!
On October 12, from 11am to 9pm, RoboDesigners represented FIRST LEGO League robotics at the Future Focus Expo. We had our field kit set up and demonstrated a remote-controlled NXT forklift. Go to www.futurefocusexpo.com for more information.
FIRST LEGO League Coaches' Workshop
RoboDesigners had the opportunity to lead the 2010 Lynchburg FLL Coaches' Workshop. We covered many topics, including NXT-G programming, the Body Forward Challenge, and coaching tips. We had a special afternoon programming session just for team members.
NXT-G Class at Fincastle Library
RoboDesigners has taught NXT-G programming classes at the Fincastle Library. Click here to view our Picasa web album.
What You can do on Our Site
- Find links to the current FLL Challenge
- Find out what we have been doing and learning about on our blog
- Learn about programming languages
- Learn about FIRST LEGO League (FLL)
- Learn about VEX Robotics
- Learn about Autodesk Inventor
- View pictures of our teams
- Watch movies of our robots
- Learn how to make animations
- Learn about LEGO Digital Designer (LDD)