Aargh! First attempt goes awry, but robot team seizes the day.

Byline: Winston Ross The Register-Guard

FLORENCE - Houston, we have a problem.

Somewhere between the harrowing journey from Florence to Portland, the Mars Ascent Vehicle encountered some turbulence. It landed without a hitch, but when the sophisticated robot tried to perform its first (and simplest) task, the machine malfunctioned - and broke.

If that sounds like something straight out of NASA, then Sarah Gage-Hunt and her team of budding engineers couldn't be more tickled. Gage-Hunt runs the Talented and Gifted Program at Siuslaw Middle School, home of the "Psycho Pirates."

The pirates were simulating a mission to Mars at a recent state tournament, with robots made from Legos - yes, Legos - the same bits of knobby plastic any kindergartner can squeeze together.

But these aren't your kindergartner's Legos - at least, not unless your kindergartner has a few Benjamin Franklins lying around. Not only does a single kit of "Mindstorms" retail for $200, it requires a grasp of computer programming and engineering, to boot.

But the toy's sophistication is why building Lego robots is one of the hottest "sports" around, growing steadily since Lego first partnered with the New Hampshire inventor of the Segway scooter in 1998 to create the First Lego League.

"We need to show kids that it's more fun to design and create a video game than it is to play one," said Dean Kamen, the league's founder.

Competitions that inspire teams of 9- to 14-year-olds to build the better robot saw participation levels quadruple since they first came to Oregon in 2001, from less than 50 teams that year to 200 last year, says Bruce Shafer, who directs Oregon's chapter of the league, called the Oregon Robotics Tournament and Outreach Program.

That makes the robotics program one of the state's fastest-growing youth programs. In 43 other states and 13 other countries, more than 3,000 teams participated in the events, up from 1,500 in 2001.

"No. 1, it's Legos. Kids live Legos," said Kit Reno, state coordinator for the First Lego League. "Two, they're amazed at what they can do. They learn how to program, how to make a robot."

And three, they can bring home bragging rights. The Florence team has amassed a small collection of trophies in the two years that students have competed. Last month, they brought home a first place in the state competition - a trophy shaped like a robot, built with Legos - for winning the "Against All Odds" category of the competition.

Here's how it works:

The Lego robotics kit - there are two different kinds - comes with hardware and software, which breaks team members into programmers and builders. Typically, the students will first design a robot, capable of performing tasks, including driving, picking up objects, even catapulting things from one place to another.

The programmers then turn to their software, which allows them to click and drag a series of commands into a sequence, save it as a program and then beam it to the robot via a wireless panel somewhere on its body. The commands are intricate. Beyond the basic "move forward, move backward," students can attach modifiers to their instructions, telling the robot how many wheel revolutions to travel before stopping, how fast to go and whether to play music along the way.

"Last year, we did the theme from Darth Vader," says 13-year-old Kenneth Alvis, a builder.

To compete, the team orders the annual mission from the First Lego League. This year, the nonprofit organization sent out 4-by 8-foot mats depicting the Mars' Gustev Crater, along with the materials to build structures.

Included was a set of tasks the robot had to accomplish - picking up ice cores, for example, and moving them somewhere else. One of the trickier tasks was to lower the ramp of a "tetrahedron base," and drive the Mars Ascent Vehicle off it, which the pirates combined with sweeping the space dust off a nearby solar panel.

"It's an excellent combination of technology, teamwork and fun," Shafer says. "There are kids out there who are interested in technical challenges - if it can be done in a way that doesn't make it feel like another class."

Could these kids have ever imagined a set of Legos capable of such tasks?

"Sure, I imagined it," Alvis says. "But it was all in my imagination."

At the recent competition in Hillsboro, it was the ice cores that Siuslaw's robot had trouble with. But the team quickly put the robot back together and tried again - and it paid off. They won the "Against All Odds" prize, awarded to a team that did well in all categories, but came to the tournament with less sponsorship, mentoring and a longer journey.

"They've learned a lot about having to respect each other's ideas," Gage-Hunt said.

Intel Corp. is the program's main monetary sponsor in Oregon because it serves as a breeding ground for future engineers, company spokesman Bill MacKenzie says.

"Involving youngsters at an early age in math and science has a lot to do with whether they continue to pursue it through their academic careers," he said.

The Psycho Pirates are hooked.

But budget cuts from the failure of Measure 30, the state tax increase voted down last week, have put the Florence chapter in jeopardy.

The Talented and Gifted program was on the chopping block last year, Gage-Hunt says. With the district needing to cut $1 million, it's hard to know whether the robot builders will survive for another round of competition.

Winston Ross can be reached at [phone] or [e-mail].

ON THE INTERNET

More information is available at: www.ortop.org or www.firstlegoleague.org.

CAPTION(S):

Florence students (from left) Kaitlin Shepherd, Kenneth Alvis, Victor Litkei, Rivers Gage-Hunt and Royce Holmes show off their trophy.