Silberbauer Says:

Then: Playtime. We joined the RobotLabs workshop run by LEGO Mindstorms [Update: the event was hosted by RobotLabs itself, not LEGO]. Now – this was fun. The assignment was to program a pre-built robot to solve as many tasks as possible in a small model world. The theme was Energy, so “coal”-bricks were to be moved to a certain position, windmills must be pushed across the landscape and a petrol car should be moved to make room for a hydrogen car.

It was a classic team work experience, but the pressure was on as we had very little time to program the robot. Also, to win, the group had to prioritize the assignments: Some assignments were worth a lot of points – others almost no points. so this was about creativeness, yes: But also it was about business objectives. The groups that did not go for the easiest way to solve the problems that paid the most points lost. Even if their solutions were creative.

Needless to say: Our group (Silberbauer Bros. and Christian from FLSMidth) won the contest that day. Always nice to have en engineer close at hand when it comes to robots.

The Mindstorm products are truly innovative and the LEGO [Update: Robotlabs] workshop succeeded in showing what innovation is all about: Creativeness and teamwork – but also a clear goal and clear business objectives.

Great to see that a product we’ve played with from the age of 2 still re-invents itself without loosing the “thing” that made it fly then. It still flies. Must… must… must have Mindstorm for Christmas.