FLL 2020 RePlay Solutions and review course with the Robot Inventor set

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Prepare for the next competition with our latest course FIRST LEGO League 2020 RePlay Solutions and review with the LEGO Mindstorms Robot Inventor set. Actually, this is a mirror course to the LEGO Education SPIKE Prime course for the same FLL challenge.

The new Robot Inventor course contains:

🤖 The rules for each mission in the competition;
🤖 A tutorial how to accomplish it;
🤖 Instructions for the robot that is used;
🤖 Instructions for the used attachment;

Every lesson contains a Scratch and a Python program for accomplishing the mission and a 🔟 out of 🔟 tutorial that demonstrates how reliable the approach is.

This is only a preview of our 10 out of 10 tutorial where we demonstrate how we can accomplish the Tire Flip mission from FLL 2020 RePlay with a LEGO Mindstorms Robot inventor set in a repeatable way. We manage to flip the tires on almost every try.

If you’re curious to see the full video, here is a LINK.

The course could give you new ideas on how to approach different missions during FLL robotics competitions and could also help your team score more points.

📣 The best part is that all the lessons could be completed with a single LEGO Mindstorms Robot Inventor set without additional parts.

Here is a link - grab your Robot Inventor set and start exploring –> https://www.fllcasts.com/courses/215-first-lego-league-2020-replay-solutions-and-review-with-robot-inventor?utm_source=blog&utm_medium=post&utm_campaign=course_215&utm_content=215_2

Meet the student who created a fully functional LEGO robot dog, inspired by Spot from Boston Dynamics

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His name is John and he is a 14-year-old student from Canada, who has no professional experience with robotics. However, he has created a fully functional robot dog, inspired by Spot from Boston Dynamics, that is 100% made out of LEGO.

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Originally posted by muvana

“This was not an easy project. Making a 4 leg quadruped is insanely hard, especially if it’s made out of LEGO”, shares the Canadian student in the description of his 8:47 minutes long video on YouTube, which now has more than 127 000 views.

It took him more than 3 months of work to complete Stud, as he called his creation, but he is now really happy with the end result.

And how can he not be? Using the EV3 robotic system, Stud is able to walk and run, detect and avoid obstacles, and even dance. The top speed of the robot is also impressive - 1.8km/h.

We decided to contact John and ask him a few questions about him and his project, because such stories could inspire more young people and children around the world to dive into the field of robotics and become the needed change in our world.

Before we start with the interview, take a look at the great video of the fully functional LEGO Robot Dog, so you could have a better perspective about our conversation with John.

Impressive, isn’t it? We’re really glad that John decided to answer our questions and we respect his decision not to reveal his face or share further personal information.

- Could you introduce yourself to our community? What is your name? Where are you from? How old are you? What is your experience in the field of robotics?

- Hello! My name is John, I’m 14 years old, and I am from Canada. I don’t really have any professional experience with robotics, but I’ve always been making stuff ever since a young age.

- You’ve created a fully functional LEGO robot dog inspired by Spot from Boston Dynamics. How did you come up with this idea?

- Well, one day, during summer break, I was watching YouTube and I saw the official launch video for “Spot” from Boston Dynamics. I thought it was insanely cool, so I decided to remake my own version. I didn’t have access to any advanced 3D printers or machinery, so I decided to try recreating it out of LEGO.

- In the video you share that you’ve been working on this project for about 3 months. Did you work all alone?

- Yep! I got a little bit of help from other people during the process, but for the most part, I worked on it by myself. The process took more than 3 months, because I did not have much free time to work on the project.

- What was the hardest part of creating Stud and why?

- Trying to get the model to balance properly; there are only two legs touching the ground when the other ones are stepping forward, so it was super hard to get it to work without falling over. I think it took me an entire month to design the legs and steering because I kept failing and the model kept on falling over.

- It’s really valuable that in the video you’re sharing some of your failures during the process. We all have moments of failure sometimes and it’s important to acknowledge those moments as a valuable part of the journey, but not a reason to quit. Did you have a moment that you wanted just to throw everything away and forget about this robot dog? If yes, what motivated you to, let’s say, keep walking?

- After Version 1 failed, I did not want to redesign the whole thing, so I quit. A few weeks later, I decided to try again, and after a lot of hard work it ended up working!

- You’ve shared your video about Stud on YouTube on Sep 7th, 2021 and now it has more than 127 000 views. Why do you think the video is so successful? There are plenty of LEGO projects on the web that stand no chance of gaining so much popularity.

- I think the main reason the video did so well was because of the quality and how unique the build was. The robotic dog I made is one of the first ones on YouTube, and I explained the entire process of the build through the video. This gave me a longer view duration, which caused the YouTube algorithm to recommend it to more people. I believe that as long as you make a video interesting to watch, you’ll be able to get a good number of views and subscribers.

- What is the future of Stud? Do you have further plans for this project?

- I’m not completely sure, maybe I could add an arm, or make it climb over obstacles?

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- How many robots have you built before the beginning of this major LEGO robot dog project?

- Quite a few, but most of them were using instructions and not designed by me.

- What brings you more joy - the programming or the engineering part of creating functional LEGO robots? And why?

- I like the engineering and designing part better, because I find it super relaxing to make and design things out of LEGO or other materials. The programming part is sometimes hard to figure out, and it requires a ton of trial and error.

- You use LEGO Mindstorms EV3 for your robot dog. What do you think about the heirs of the EV3 set - LEGO SPIKE Prime and Robot Inventor? Would you stick to the Mindstorms EV3 or will you move further along with the technology?

- I would love to switch to SPIKE prime, or maybe even more advanced robotics using actual electronics and 3D printers. On the other hand, I’m only 14, so I’ll need to save up some money if I ever want to go further along with the tech.

- In the description of your YouTube channel you share that you “make cool things every once in a while”. Could you share some other cool stuff that you’ve built before? And what is the next cool thing that you’re up to?

- In the past I’ve made quite a few smaller builds, such as vending machines and safes. I’ve also made some robots, but most of them were using instructions, such as a rubik’s cube solver or a printer. I have plans to either improve the robotic dog or make a self-aiming bow in the future; but I probably won’t finish any time soon because I’m super busy with school at the moment.

- How do you imagine yourself in 10 years?

- I imagine myself to be working in the field of either architecture, engineering, technology, or film-making. I would love to start my own company, if I can manage to do it.

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If you like the LEGO Mindstorms EV3 robot dog Stud, you can support John’s project on LEGO Ideas here → https://ideas.lego.com/projects/ada73aaa-103a-439e-a7fb-e9cac939665e

Tips & tricks for FIRST LEGO League (FLL) 2021 CARGO CONNECT Challenge

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Let’s get the party started! Our Tips & Tricks for FIRST LEGO League (FLL) 2021 CARGO CONNECT Challenge are already online and waiting for you!

For free!

As every year, we’ve created for all of you a Tips and Tricks page. A place where you could explore all the new mission models and build with ease every bag with our 3D building instructions. A place where you could inspire for the upcoming new challenge. A place that you could use as a starting point for accomplishing the missions.

The goal of this page is to share ideas you could learn from and start with to develop your own solutions.

Our usual approach

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This year we again follow the approach of mentorship - we help with directions and questions based on experience and tutorials from previous years. As we think of more tips and tricks we plan to update the page a few more times during the season, so check for updates from time to time.

Note that there would be no solutions until the end of the season!

Pick a bag, grab an idea, prepare for the CARGO CONNECT Challenge!


FIRST LEGO League 2020 RePlay Solutions & Review with LEGO SPIKE Prime

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We bet that you are ready for the new competition season. But first - it’s time for our annual Solutions and Review course! This year our review course is all about FIRST LEGO League 2020 RePlay challenge and we’re using the LEGO SPIKE Prime set. The first few tutorials and attachments are already released, so don’t hesitate to begin with the lessons.

We do a similar review course every year after the competition. By moving through the lessons, building the robot and attachments, and completing the missions, you will learn how to follow good engineering principles for building robots and developing programs.

In this course you’ll:

- Find the solutions of many missions with our video tutorials;


- See different approaches to those missions;

- Learn how to build a good competition robot with your LEGO SPIKE Prime set;

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- Learn how to build different attachments;

- Get programs that are ready to use’

- Watch our “10 out of 10″ videos that show how reliable the attachment and the programs are.

Upon completion of the course you will have many new ideas about how to approach mission on every FLL robotics competition and how to help your team score more points.

Free 3D & animated instructions for LEGO Mindstorms 51515 Robot Inventor

Are you a LEGO Mindstorms 51515 Robot Inventor fan? We certainly are! That’s why we’re so excited to tell you that you can find some free 3D and animated Robot Inventor building instructions on our website!

If you want to easily build the sports fanatic Tricky or the great M.V.P. vehicle, just go to FLLCasts, register and start exploring the free resources on the platform.

Tricky with the basketball attachment


Tricky might be the smallest Mindstorms 51515 Robot Inventor robot, but it’s definitely one of the greatest. If you build Tricky with this particular Basketball attachment and grab the Mindstorms/Duplo ball, which is included in the set, you’ll unlock a whole new level in playing basketball at home. Yes, yes, we know that you’ll also need a basketball hoop, so here is –> a link for it <–

M.V.P. - LEGO Mindstorms 51515 Robot Inventor

Have you seen the M.V.P. (Modular Vehicle Platform)? The great thing about it is that you can create and program your own remote control and you could build it into a buggy, a shooter turret or even a crane.

These and more step-by-step 51515 Robot Inventor instructions are waiting for you on our platform! Have fun, guys!

How to play & learn with your students at home

If you are a parent and you are raising your kids during these complicated times, we’re here to tell you that we know what you’re going through. A simple GIF actually could make a better sense than all the words that are running like crazy in our frustrated minds.

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Originally posted by radfemandreadaly

We’re also parents, stuck in their homes with their babies, students, work tasks and household chores. It’s as difficult as juggling several fragile crystal glasses - no matter how hard you try, you know how easily they can slip and break into a million tiny pieces when they hit the floor.

Play & Learn STEM with the FLLCasts Team

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Now, when most after class activities are closed, especially the STEM classes, we’ve decided to develop something, that would make our lives easier. We’ve created a fun, effective and structured way for parents to play & learn with their kids at home.

What we do is help parents spend productive and meaningful time to play and learn with their children by using LEGO Robotics sets to their full potential. In fact we’ve done this for teachers, robotics competition teams and parents for the last decade, and now we would like to help parents spend fun and engaging time with their children.

With our Instructions-a-Week program parents will receive a live, 3D & animated building instruction weekly, that will give them the opportunity to just grab a ready-to-use solution and start creating cool LEGO robots with their children - with the education sets that they already have at home. (If you don’t have a LEGO robotics set, we’ll tell you how to get one)

Once they are done with the building-together part, parents could safely leave the “playground” at home and start dealing with their work tasks, while their children would be having lots of fun with their brand new toy. But this is not an ordinary toy. The robots, that parents and children would build together, are educational and would help kids gain knowledge in the field of STEM & even programming.

How it started

It started with a garbage container.

“My daughters are 7 years old (as of the time of writing this). Programming the SPIKE Prime on their own is a little difficult for them. So I just build a Garbage Container. No specific reason. Just thought about it. No motors, no programming, no brick. Just a simple construction. Simple but fun, because you can open the lit”, explains our CEO Kiril Mitov who brought to us the “Instructions-a-week” idea.

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How to start for free

It doesn’t matter if you have non or some experience in robotics, you start with going to the Learn & Home page.

There you’ll find the section “Choose your weapon”, where you have to select the robotics set that you want to Learn & Play with. It could be LEGO Education SPIKE Prime, LEGO Mindstorms EV3, LEGO Mindstorms Robot Inventor etc. There are some materials that require only a computer. For example - Scratch at Home.

When you choose your weapon, let’s say it’s SPIKE Prime, a new page will open and you’ll see the button “Start for free“. Click it and just follow the onscreen instructions.

Have fun together

The idea of the Instruction-a-week is to have fun!

You’ll get instructions for building different constructions (could be animals, everyday objects, motorcycles and so on). After every instruction you would see different tasks. You can complete them one by one - every further becomes more complex - or you could simply ignore them and have fun with what you’ve built together.

Let’s stay at home, play & learn together. As a family!

Try it!

Free 3D and animated building instructions of LEGO’s Star Wars “The Child” model

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“Do. Or do not. There is no try!”

You probably remember this famous line spoken by Yoda in the film “Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back”.

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Originally posted by theatrical-cut-star-wars

We’ve created FREE 3D and animated building instructions of LEGO’s Star Wars “The Child (75318)” build-and-display model. Except the obvious cuteness overload, we did our best to create the 3D steps in the easiest way possible, so you DO manage to build “Baby Yoda” successfully, because trying is not an option.

Do not use the force, use our 3D animated building instructions

You may be wondering why it’s good news that we’ve created 3D and animated step-by-step building instructions of the Child. The answer is pretty simple – because it’s easier and more fun to build models with so detailed and accurate navigation.  

If you are new to building with LEGO, you could just grab our free instructions and start building with confidence.

Of course, the model is quite challenging as it has 1,073 pieces, but it’s suitable for kids over 10 years old and adults, especially Star Wars fans.

LEGO really managed to recreate the authentic details of the Child. In our animation you can see that it has posable head, ears and mouth for different expressions. It also has it’s favorite toy – a gearshift knob element, included in the set – that it holds just like it does in Star Wars: The Mandalorian.

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Originally posted by gameraboy1

Measuring over 19 cm high, 21 cm wide and 13 cm deep, this brick-built model of the Child could thrill enthusiasts of all ages.

Another good reason to try out our building instructions of the Child is the fact that it could help you make the decision whether to invest or not in buying this cool model.  

Have a look at the following video:

FLL 2020 RePLAY Challenge: Practical advice from FLLCasts engineers

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FIRST LEGO League (FLL) 2020 RePLAY has arrived and it seems it will be a pretty interesting competition. Some of the missions are quite challenging, but as in previous years, we’ve prepared a Tips and Tricks page that could help you get started. What we could do as mentors, is to help with directions and questions based on experience and tutorials from previous years.

As each year we’re not releasing any “solutions” until the season ends. The page aims at providing ideas you could learn from and develop your own solutions to the missions.

Meanwhile, our engineers Dimitar Staykov (DS) and Martin Grozev (MG), who are well familiar with the new field, are sharing their thoughts about the upcoming challenge.

Do you wanna know which would be the most difficult mission? Or you’re worried how you would prepare your team for a robotics competition during this global complex situation? Keep reading, you might find the answers you need.

What do you think about the new FLL 2020 RePLAY season and the missions in it?

DS: I think the new field is as challenging as any other from the previous seasons. The people behind the field and the missions have done a wonderful job once again. It’s a pity that it appeared in such a complicated year.

MG: The missions in the new RePLAY challenge look to really promote creativity and fun! The first thing that got my attention while looking at the launch video and the rules, was that there are two missions that require your robot to be there at the end of the game to score points. That means that not only you have to choose one of them, but also that there is more pressure for your robot to make it in time to those missions. Of course M06 “Pull-Up Bar” gives more points than M07 “Robot Dance”, but it is way harder to do! The field also has two missions for flipping objects, M09 “Tire Flip” and M10 “Cell Phone”, which will be very interesting to figure out. In this challenge we have to transport around little cubes, which could prove to be pretty difficult as M04 “Bench” needs quite a bit of accuracy! All the other missions are very interesting and I really like the balance in points as you can do a little of a mission and still get points, but if you want to have the most points, you still have to work hard!

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Which is the mission you think would be most difficult for the teams in the new competition? Why?

DS:I think that would be mission 6 Pull-up Bar… or mission 8 Boccia. Mission 6 requires a small robot which could pass under the beam and then has to successfully pull up on it. Such a small robot would struggle to complete mission 5 Basketball, because it would need a bigger or complicated attachment in order to push the hoop higher and win more points. Mission 8 Boccia requires aiming and this always is complicated and somehow a matter of luck.

MG: As Dimitar said, the hardest mission probably is M06 “Pull-Up Bar”, because most robots are pretty heavy and have a hard time lifting themselves. Definitely a cool challenge to solve! This mission is of course exclusive with M07 “Robot Dance” and for 10 less points, you can not go through the hassle of designing your robot for one mission and make it do a cool dance, which could be a fair trade. The other missions could also prove to be quite tricky. In M03 “Slide”, the slide has a very interesting shape, which might lead to some interesting solutions for pushing the people off the slide. M04 “Bench”, in addition to requiring a lot of accuracy for the cubes, needs to be pushed and the back to be extracted, which are a lot of movements, but it’s probably worth it for 65 points. M11 “Treadmill” and M12 “Row Machine” are also contenders for the hardest mission as both have a big risk of displacing your robot, so I expect some cool solutions for them!

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What is the best way to prepare for a robotics competition in this complicated worldwide situation? What is the best advice you could give to the mentors and teams? What should they do to prepare for the challenge?

MG: The best way to prepare for RePLAY in the current conditions is to talk more with the members of the team, including the mentors! See what everyone can offer to do and decide the best way to proceed. As a solution to the problem, I would propose to make the project online, with regular meetings at least once a week. For the Robot Game, the best course of action is probably if the team gathers a few times for a bootcamp-like team building for a few days and just focuses on the Robot Game and teambuilding. Those few days might be over the weekend or more, as most countries’ quarantine lasts for two weeks, it is probably best if you do it once over two weeks, although it is probably impossible for most teams.

DS: It’s different for everyone. You could prepare online and also offline with the team. If we’re talking about offline preparation, I think that each member of a team should play around the field at home, if he/she has such an opportunity, instead of watching television, for example. There is no need to spend all this time struggling to figure out ways to accomplish the missions. You could just play different games on it. That is a way you can come up with great and original ideas.

My advice to teams and mentors is to find a safe way to gather together for at least two hours daily and try to work for the competition. That doesn’t mean that they have to concentrate on the field and robot only, but to prepare for the other challenges - the interview with the team, the presentation, etc. 

Teams shouldn’t forget that building the field correctly is crucial for the good preparation for the competition. They should explore the field in detail and from every angle. In fact, this thought inspired us to create our live 3D animated building instructions. In our Tips & Tricks for FLL 2020 RePLAY challenge page you could explore the mission models from every angle. 

On the other hand, the course Solutions & Review for FLL 2019 City Shaper might be also useful for teams - learning from your own experience from previous missions is a great way to prepare for an upcoming competition. 

Last, but not least, some sort of team buildings could do a great job. The team could go play some outdoor games - run together in the park or play volleyball. But the most important is to have fun together. This is the goal of the competition. If they’re not having fun together, there’s no point to participate at all.

Check our first SPIKE Prime course “Stay @ Home”

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We’re excited to announce that we’ve released the first lesson of our SPIKE Prime Stay @ Home course! Many of our users and followers asked for materials for SPIKE Prime and we’ve managed to create 7 different lessons with 7 cool robots that would help parents and educators teach robotics and STEM concepts to middle school students.

This brand new course is like an introduction to the SPIKE Prime set. You will explore the possibilities of the base set and improve the engineering skills of your student while using our 3D building instructions. Some of them are animated and are showing what the current robot is capable of.

“I simply picked one of the new LEGO parts and started building something around it - until all parts fell into their place, creating a robot”, says Martin Grozev, who is the author of the new Stay @ Home SPIKE course.

“I continued by picking another new part and creating a different robot, then repeated… Long story short - I ended up with 7 different and cool SPIKE Prime robots”, continues Martin, whose goal is to use all new parts in the course.

After you’ve built the robot, it’s time to learn how to make it move and complete several challenges. We’ve got you covered with different ready to use programs for each robot.

We’ve also prepared some additional more complex tasks for those who dare. The goal of the tasks is to challenge you to research solutions for modifications to the design of the robot and its programs.

Of course, you could always postpone those challenges and just have lots of fun with the robot - possibilities are endless!

The first lesson

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The first lesson of the course is called Larva Robot.

It is called that, because it moves like a larva or a caterpillar! Its program is very simple as its core consists of only 3 movement blocks in a loop.

Sounds interesting? Come and have some fun with FLLCasts and our first SPIKE Prime course!

The next lesson of the course will be available on the 24th of July!

Another idea in the Survival Guide - programming orientated online courses

The third lesson in the “Survive the Lockdown - guide for STEM & robotics clubs” is published.

In the new idea for survival we’re turning our focus on moving our courses online and the different approaches that we could take. The lesson is called “Programming orientated online courses“.

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It’s easy to say that you have to turn a new page and conduct more programming orientated courses online. But you want to do it in a fun, engaging and interactive way. The fun in robotics is in the interaction with an actual robot. Where is the fun in online programming classes? How to keep students interested?

We present you three possible ways to accomplish this and what’s even better - we provide you with proven and ready to use “Scratch” solution - our brand new “Keep ‘em clean course”.

In the lesson you’ll learn more about “Blockly” -  the web-based, visual programming editor - and Python, which is one of the most popular programming languages in the world.

Why did we prefer to use “Scratch“? See the answer in the lesson.

Pssst! The course is free for registration! All you need to do is click and grab an idea from the Survival Guide.

If you’ve missed it, here is the previous lesson - “Create a community hub with Discord”, where we’re explaining why is important to have a communication channel for your community and how to set it up.