I’m on the volunteer committee working on the Robotics MB (RMB). The requirements have not been finalized and the book is still being drafted, so there aren’t many details to share yet. About all I can safely say is that:
The RMB booth at Jamboree has been wildly popular. We estimate that as many as 1,000 Scouts and Scouters per day have driven a demo robot and earned their souvenir RMB patch. It’s not the MB, by the way, but a pocket patch. VEX provided the demo gear, including five drivable robots, one static display, and their big t-shirt shooting robot, along with other trinkets and t-shirts. The heat, humidity, and dust of the outdoor venue has been a great testing ground for robot durability. I know that I haven’t worked on any competition robots that could survive 50+ hours of operation in these conditions.
The RMB will be released during National Robotics Week in April, 2011.
The requirements are NOT available yet, but I think Scouts will be happy. In a nutshell, a Scout will have to research, design, build, and test a robot, including maintaining a design/test notebook, and that participation in organized competitions may be used to fulfill part of the requirements.
The RMB is completely brand- and program-neutral. The team chose neutrality as a primary goal from the beginning so that any robotics development platform (VEX, BEST, home brew, etc.) can be used to earn the MB.
The RMB patch shows a NASA Mars Rover robot. I believe this design is final, but you never know…
The team working on the merit badge has vast experience in industry, science, robotics competitions, and Scouting. I am privileged to work with these people.
That’s about all I can say right now, but I will be glad to check back in as components of the RMB are cleared for public release. I’m not trying to keep stuff secret, by the way, it’s just that the team is in the middle of making these decisions right now and the answers to most of your questions are simply not available.
I can’t wait!! I’ve wanted a robotics merit badge to be available for as long as I have been in scouts, and even thought about writing the BSA… Thanks so much for working on this!
I’ve got two kids at the Jamboree and have been looking at the photos being posted. Some of the early ones showed the VEX robots in action at the Merit Badge Midway and they looked great! Thanks for being there. I think they were a big hit with the scouts and their leaders. It is this kind of out-reach that really shows where VEX community’s heart is - inspiring and mentoring our future engineers and scientists.
My son David and I ran a trial session of the new Robotics Merit Badge at the Sammamish Trails District Merit Badge Weekend on October 23. This was held at the Chief Seattle Council’s Camp Pigott.
Nine Scouts went through the draft requirements, although we had to turn away another 25 who wanted to sign up. With the available space, people, and robot kits we could only take 10. The Scouts had a great time, and built four different VEX robots in the single day we had. We provided feedback to the National Council, and were able to give some guidance on how Councils can plan to provide support to summer camps that want to do robotics.
I think this new badge will be a winner, and I wish I could tell you more, but you are just going to have to wait for National Robotics Week in April! Since this is the same week as the VEX Robotics Competition World Championships, details of the new merit badge will come out at the same time as Worlds.
My son is involved in a robotics group and they are using the Lego Mindstorms kits. Will be able to use some of his projects that are done using the Mindstorm to get the robotics merit badge. I know that you say that it is not brand specific and written to be generic, but it is not listed and just want to make sure. Is there a way that you can check into that for me?
The Robotics Merit Badge Pamphlet is due to hit Scout Shops in conjunction with National Robotics Week, which is April 9-17. The first group of Scouts to ever earn this Merit Badge will be presented their patches at the VRC World Championship in Orlando. In other words, the requirements are going to be public in a little more than a week.
The answer to your question, though, is that the merit badge requirements were written to allow a Scout to use an construction kit (such as VEX or Mindstorms), or to build their own robot from scratch. I hope he has fun with robots.
