Hello Teams!
You may have seen something about a Robot Design Executive
Summary, and a Core Values Poster. Don’t
panic! The Robot Design Executive
Summary (RDES), and the Core Values (CV) Poster are NOT needed for your FLL Qualifier.
The RDES and CV Poster WILL,
however, be required if you advance to a Michigan State Championship Event.
What is the Robot Design Executive
Summary (RDES)?
To help the Robot Design judges quickly and consistently learn
about your robot and the design process used, we are requiring a short
presentation. An “executive summary” is often used by engineers to briefly
outline the key elements of a product or project. In other words, the purpose
of the RDES is to give the Robot Design judges an outline of your robot and all
that it can do. The RDES is intended to help your team consider in advance the
most important information to share with the judges. What you chose to share
will enable the judges to effectively evaluate your team and provide more
helpful feedback.
Your team is free to determine how much time you invest, but
realistically it should only take a few hours to develop and practice the RDES.
The RDES is NOT intended to be as extensive or time consuming as your Project.
Your team will present your RDES at the beginning of your Robot
Design judging session. The entire presentation, including the trial run,
should not take any longer than four (4) minutes. Following your Robot
Design presentation the judges will pose questions for your team to answer. You
are not required to provide a written version of the RDES to leave with the
judges.
Basic Outline: The
RDES should include the following elements: Robot Facts, Design
Details, and a short Trial Run.
Robot Facts: Share
with the judges a little bit about your robot, such as the number and type of
sensors, drivetrain details, number of parts, and the number of attachments.
The judges would also like to know what programming language you used, the
number of programs and the amount of memory used by each program, and your most
consistently completed mission.
Design
Details:
1. Fun: Describe the most fun or interesting part of
robot design as well as the most challenging parts. If your robot has a name,
who chose the name and why. If your team has a fun story about your robot
please feel free to share.
2. Strategy: Explain your team’s strategy and reasoning
for choosing and accomplishing missions. Talk a little bit about how successful
your robot was in completing the missions that you chose. Judges may like to
hear about your favorite mission and why it is your favorite.
3. Design Process: Describe how your team designed your robot
and what process you used to make improvements to your design over time.
Briefly share how different team members contributed to the design and how you
incorporated all the ideas.
4. Mechanical Design: Explain to the judges your robot’s
basic structure, how you make sure your robot is durable and how you made it
easy to repair or add/remove attachments. Explain to the judges how the robot
moves (drivetrain), and what attachments and mechanisms it uses to operate or
complete missions.
5. Programming: Describe how you programmed your robot to
ensure consistent results. Explain how you organized and documented your
programs, as well as, mention if your programs use sensors to know (and ensure)
the location of the robot on the field.
6. Innovation: Describe
any features of your robot design that you feel are special, different or
especially clever.
Trial Run: Demonstrate the operation of your robot
for the judges performing the mission(s) of your choice. Please do not do an
entire robot round; time will be needed for judges to ask questions of your
team.
What is the Core Values Poster?
To help the
Core Values judges learn more about your team and its unique story, we are
requiring every team to create a simple Core Values “tri‐fold” or poster. The
topics highlighted on the poster are typically the most challenging for judges
to explore during judging sessions. The poster is intended to help your team
consider in advance how best to present its strengths so that the judges can
consider all teams equally and have the most information possible to provide meaningful
feedback. Feel free to use creativity and originality!
Important rules and guidelines are listed below:
1. Time
Investment: While your team is free to determine how much time to spend, please
know that realistically for most teams it should only take a few hours from the
initial brainstorming discussion to the completion of the poster.
This poster
is NOT intended to be on the same scale or an extension of your Project
presentation. Remember the judges are more interested in your team’s story,
than fancy graphics.
2. General
Layout: The poster layout should follow the design below. The overall size of
the poster should be no more than the measurements shown, and it may be
smaller, especially if required for travel needs. The poster may also be rolled
or assembled on site.
3. Defined
areas: There are four areas on the poster where specific information should be
provided. These are the MOST IMPORTANT areas of the poster and should be the
main focus of your work.
a. In the “Discovery”
area of the poster, provide examples from the season about things your team
discovered that were not focused on gaining an advantage in the competition or
winning an award. Tell the judges how you balanced all three parts of FLL (Core
Values, Project and Robot Game) especially if you really wanted to focus on
only one sometimes!
b. In the “Integration”
area, provide specific examples of how your team applied Core Values and other
things you learned through FLL, to situations outside of FLL. Let the judges
know how you integrated new ideas, skills and abilities into your everyday
life.
c. In the “Inclusion”
area, describe how your team listened to and considered ideas from everyone and
made each team member feel like a valued part of the team. Share with the
judges how you worked together and accomplished more than you could have by
working alone.
d. In the “Coopertition”
area, describe how your team honors the spirit of friendly competition. Include
on your poster information about how your team provided assistance to and/or
received assistance from other teams. Share with the judges how your team
members help each other, and help other teams to prepare for a potentially
stressful FLL competition experience.
4. The
Middle: The area in the middle of the poster is for your team to highlight
anything else you would like to share with the judges about the remaining Core
Values criteria. Maybe consider sharing examples of Team Spirit, Respect and
Teamwork. You may also include examples of how your team has fun or shares with
others how amazing science, technology, engineering and math can be.
At the
State Championships, your Core Values judging session will have the following
format:
1. 5
minutes – Teamwork Activity: When your team enters the judging room, they will
be given a short, fun activity while the judges observe how the team works
together.
2. 5
minutes – Questions and Answers: Time reserved for the Core Values judges to
ask questions about the Teamwork Activity, your displayed Core Values Poster
and the season.
