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This past weekend, VEX Robotics announced their 2013 – 2014 challenge, VEX Toss Up at their World Championship. It was an exciting event that our team was happy to be a part of. We’re also very happy to make our brand-new VEX Toss Up Robot Virtual World available to download.

This years competition field features a higher level of interactivity and simulation than ever before. Several new robots designed specifically for Toss Up have been added to the line-up, and are fully programmable through ROBOTC.

New Robots
Check out Ballerbot pulling itself up on the hanging bar and capping one of the goals with a big ball:

Intakebot can hold two of the smaller buckyballs at a time. It’s retractable arm make it great for scoring the buckyballs or pushing any of the game obects into a scoring area on the floor:

User Interface
The new and improved user interface allows you to switch between the robots, game modes, starting points, and tells you where the growing list of motors and sensors are connected:

Controlling the Robots
Sample code for programming the robots to move autonomously or via a USB Remote control is installed with the virtual world. You will find it by going to File > Open Sample Program > VEX Toss Up.

Don’t have a USB Remote Control? No Problem! We’ve also added keyboard control for the robots in the “ROBOT SKILLS” game mode! Ballerbot and Intakebot are pretty different, but they use the same set of keys for control:

• W key: Robot moves forward
• A key: Robot turns left
• S key: Robot moves in reverse
• D key: Robot turns right
• { and } keys: Actuator 1 movement
• < and > keys: Actuator 2 movement
• ; and ‘ keys: Actuator 3 movement
• + and - keys: Actuator 4 movement

Support
We want to make sure that you’re well supported as you use the new game. Great resources can always be found at RobotVirtualWorlds.com and there’s an active community ready to answer your questions at the ROBOTC.net forums. We’ve also produced a video that will help get VEX teams started, and help them think of ways they can program their real robots:

Future Enhancements!
We’re extremely excited about this release, but we’re not done yet. Check out some of the enhancements that are on their way!

Summer of Learning Competition on CS2N
We are hosting two competitions with VEX Toss Up: one during the summer, and one during the 2013-3014 school year. Use the special CS2N mode to launch a 2-minute, autonomous-only version of the challenge. You will be able to submit your high score to a leaderboard on CS2N. Winners will be awarded prizes like robot kits, software, or even college scholarships. Full details can be found on CS2N.

Multi-player!
The VEX Toss Up RVW will be our first world to support multiple players. You will be able to connect with up to 3 additional players from anywhere in the world to play head-to-head matches. We will be releasing beta versions this summer, with a finalized version set for September 1st, 2013.

Additional Robots
Ballerbot and Intakebot are incredible robots, but we want to make sure that there’s lots of variety for for the multi-player matches. We will be adding additional robot models, each with their own characteristics this summer.

The VEX Toss Up game cane be downloaded from CS2N.org (sign-in required) or RobotVirtualWorlds.com.

Hey everyone! Hope you had an awesome weekend. Just a friendly reminder that we’ll be having another fun Robot Virtual Worlds’ Google Hangout at 6pm EST tonight. We will be talking about the gaming environment within RVW and showing off Palm Island, Operation Reset, the Measurement Toolkit, badges, and a lot more!  We look forward to having you attend and join in on the discussion! Visit http://ROBOTC.net/hangouts to join us and watch the live video stream.

P.S. Robot Virtual Worlds website has been revamped and is now live! Check it out at http://www.robotvirtualworlds.com

Hello! We are sorry for being so quiet on the blogs this week. We are in Anaheim, CA at the 2013 VEX World Championship! Below are some pictures from the last few days. Follow us on our ROBOTC Facebook and Twitter page for up-to-date pictures and videos all day.

If you are at VEX Worlds, stop by our booth, say hi, and try out Robot Virtual Worlds!

Next week, we will be at the FIRST Championship in St. Louis, MO!

Hey everyone! Just wanted to let you know we are changing the time for today’s Google Hangout webinar to 6pm EST. We will be talking about the Robot Virtual Worlds’ Level Builder and Model Importer! We hope you’re able to attend and join in on the discussion! Visit http://ROBOTC.net/hangouts to join us and watch the live video stream.

Photo by Kevin Lorenzi Of Calkins Media

TimesOnline put together a great story on the first county wide RoboCup Competition in Beaver County, PA. Jason McKenna, President of the Beaver County Gifted Consortium and a Hopewell Teacher, organized the event. The competition was put together to help kids develop problem-solving skills as well as learn the basics of programming. McKenna told TimesOnline, ”The idea (for the challenge) is that robots do jobs that are too dangerous for humans. We can’t get to a chemical spill, so we have to send a robot to do the job. It has to traverse the course, get to the chemical spill, find the victim and push the victim out of the chemical spill.” One of the things we love to hear is that many of the teams used ROBOTC to program their robots and complete this challenge! To see more from the competition, check out the video below.

We will be LIVE at 4pm EST today with our free Robot Virtual Worlds webinar! This is the second in a five part Google + Hangout series that will take place every Monday in the month of April. Today’s topic is how to use the Robot Virtual World’s Curriculum Companion.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
If you can’t tune in at 4pm EST, we will update this post later in the day with the YouTube recording. If you are joining us live, make sure to send us your questions …

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May 2013

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The Robot Virtual Worlds team has been developing a multiplayer game mode, and our group was lucky enough to get a sneak peak last week (and I made sure to record the event for you!)

Check out the video from the preview:

It will work with ROBOTC, have CS2N connectivity for achievements, private rooms so only the people you invite will be allowed in, structured chat rooms, and a lot more!! Look for it to be released at the end of the summer.

What do you think? What features would you like to see included in it?

We will be LIVE at 4pm EST today talking about Robot Virtual Worlds. This is the first in a five part Google + Hangout webinar series that will take place every Monday in the month of April. You can watch the live broadcast at 4pm EST, but if you can’t tune in during that time, the video below will turn into a YouTube recording after the event. If you are joining us live, make sure to send us your questions …

We are extremely excited to announce our new teacher certification courses! A “Robotics Academy Certified Instructor” is officially certified by Carnegie Mellon’s Robotics Academy.  The certification will provide an official and public recognition of your competencies and capabilities to teach, program, and troubleshoot educational robots. Check out our most recent video that gives you some more details …

• What is the certification?
  • The certification is proof from a robotics education world leader that you know how to program and troubleshoot robots.
• Does this course offer college credit?
  • The course offers continuing education credit and documents that you have participated in 36 hours worth of instruction at Carnegie Mellon’s Robotics Academy.  It is not a college credit course.
• What happens if I don’t pass the certification test?
  • The certification test is offered after you complete the course.  If you don’t pass the certification test, you will have the opportunity to retake the exam one month later.
• Can I use Robot Virtual Worlds in my classroom?
  • Yes, but Robot Virtual Worlds is currently only available for ROBOTC software.
• How do I register for the course?
  • Go to Professional Development Robotics Academy Classes 2013 and follow the instructions.
• Does the Robotics Academy take Purchase Orders?
  • Yes.
• When should I register?
  • As soon as possible. The courses are limited to 24 students per class and will fill up quickly.
• When are courses offered?
  • You can find a list of all classes available here – Professional Development Robotics Academy Classes 2013

All ROBOTC related training is listed below:

We are thrilled to announce the new Single and Team perpetual licenses available for Robot Virtual Worlds!! Previously, we only offered Classroom licenses for perpetual users, but due to user requests, we have now added Single and Team options. Read the rest of this entry »