Winners Named in ‘Moonbots’ Competition

September 3, 2010 — It does pay to build with Legos. Just ask a group of five eighth-graders from New Jersey. The five neighborhood friends, who called themselves Team Landroids, took top honors in Moonbots, a global educational contest that partnered with major technology leaders including Google, Inc., National Instruments and Wired Magazine’s GeekDad blog and challenged students, ranging from ages 9 – 18, to create simulated lunar rovers, using LEGO bricks and MINDSTORM components. More than 200 teams from 16 nations representing every continent but Antarctica registered for the competition, which, albeit on a smaller scale, is similar to those competing for the $30 million Google Lunar X PRIZE for building a rover to land on and explore the surface of the moon. As part of their reward, the team will travel to LEGO’s world headquarters in BIllund, Denmark to tour the LEGO factory and meet with company executives. Second place was awarded to team Shadowed Craters of California and third place went to Team Moonwalk, jointly of New Jersey and Connecticut. All three teams also received registrations and start-up kits to compete in the FIRST robotics competitions. “We were overwhelmed by the achievements of the MoonBots finalists,” noted Steven Canvin, community manager for LEGO MINDSTORMS. “Watching these teams of students—plus their adult coaches and mentors—make their LEGO MINDSTORMS robots autonomously navigate a simulated lunar landscape built from LEGO elements, we have seen firsthand how teams of children engage complex problems and actually find viable solutions. “Putting a robot on the surface of the Moon is a tremendous feat, and it was wonderful to give these students a taste of what that would entail,” he said. The first phase of the competition required students to conduct in-depth research about lunar exploration as well as use Computer Assisted Design software to mock up a lunar robot. From there, the top 20 teams advanced to the second stage where finalists spent the summer preparing for a live “Mission Webcast,” in which each team’s robot performed a variety of tasks meant to simulate the requirements of the Google Lunar X PRIZE. Each team also completed a video essay about Lunar Exploration as well as a video documentary about their process in the journey of learning about the Google Lunar X PRIZE and science, technology, engineering and math-related lessons.

Team Landroids’ winning simulated lunar rover. Photo credit: Team Landroids Team Landroids works on the Moonbot competition. Photo credit: Team Landroids Members of the second-place team, Shadowed Craters, smile for the camera. Photo credit: Shadowed Craters

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