To hold the motor in place, he build a cage around it and carefully placed bricks on each side and on top of the motor. Mehdi came up with the idea to use flat LEGO bricks to build an outer structure that would hold the motor in place, that allows more space for the shaft. The children quickly figured out two smart ways of attaching the motors: Motor Mount Option 1: Go overboard Effectively, this is the way that children learn most efficiently. It took quite a few iterations, but I enjoyed watching the children test and repeat this step, and helping each other out when they had it figured out.
Because the shaft (that’s the rotating piece on each side of the motor) of the motor is quite short, the wheels will easily spin against the LEGO surface after we mount the wheels. The fourth important step was to position the two motors on each side of the base. We experimented with a few differently sized wheels, and we found that bigger wheels worked better than smaller ones, because they lift the robot up more. We fit it by gently pushing the disk into the wheel rim, while we made sure the wheel stayed straight. Very conveniently, this white disk also fits into most LEGO wheels. Using the square screwdriver and pointy bolt that come with the Smartibot kit, we attached the small white disk to the motor, on the armature that is on the opposite side of the wires. When the circuit board was attached, we proceeded to the next step: mounting the wheels. Using the screwdrivers and two sets of nuts and bolts that are provided in the kit, we attached the circuit board to the Technic brick, and placed it at the front of the base.
We couldn’t just screw through the baseplate, so Hibbe cleverly pointed out that we can use the LEGO Technic bricks for securing the circuit board? Making your LEGO Robot SmartĪfter everyone chose the base for the robot, we tried to find ways to attach the Smartibot circuit board to the base. With that in mind, each chose their baseplate and we were ready for step #2. Opting for a smaller robot would mean your robot will be faster, but in a robot wrestling competition it will be easier to be pushed out of the ring (by bigger robots). If you want to compete in a race, it is not very ideal. There is a tradeoff: the bigger the robot, the heavier it is, and the slower it will drive. There are various sizes, but I made my cousins think carefully about the size they wanted their robot to be. We started off by choosing the baseplate for the robot. I just helped them with the essential bits: attaching the motors and circuit board, mounting the wheels and wiring up the robot. The standard components that come in the Smartibot Kitīuilding Smartibots is all about having fun and being creative, so I decided to give my cousins complete freedom in how they wanted to build their robots.So, we spent a Sunday afternoon building LEGO BattleBots, and here is how we did it. I was also curious to see how my cousins would use the Smartibot and incorporate it into their LEGO creations, given that they hadn’t build moving robots out of LEGO before. Yes, you read that right, that is over 17,000 pieces of LEGO ? With so many bricks, connectors, wheels and superhero figures we thought we could build something impressive. Hibbe and Mehdi are also keen LEGO fans, if not the biggest fans, and together they have over 20kg of LEGO. My niece Hibbe (11 years) and nephew Mehdi (7 years) always join me in for the fun, and together we’ve built some pretty awesome robots. I’m not the only one at home who likes to build robots and make fun creations with the Smartibot. She has some younger relations that are following in her footsteps, so we sent her home with some Smartibots to build BattleBots with the kids' huge LEGO collection. Rehana is an accomplished maker who has joined us at The Crafty Robot.