Winning Design!: LEGO MINDSTORMS EV3 Design Patterns for Fun and Competition

This book is unquestionably the best (only?) resource for First Lego League teams using the Mindstorms EV3 system. It appears to be an update of the author's 2010 book that used NXT; even all the chapter titles are the same. I wish I could've rated it 4.5 stars, and I would like to provide a more detailed review. As background, this is my second year coaching an FLL team, and I still gained a lot of useful advice and information from it.Trobaugh begins by emphasizing the importance of knowing and understanding all the FLL competition rules, including that you can only use genuine LEGO parts and stock EV3 programming elements. He covers chassis design, gearing, drive wheels, how to reliably travel straight, wall-following, jigs, motor matching, consistent turning, line-following, passive and motorized attachments, using pneumatic attachments for motor-free power, MyBlocks, sequencer programs, software version control, lab notebooks, and how teams should present their work to judges. There are also 76 pages of instructions for how to build the "DemoBot" robot the book uses for all of its examples.This is probably 90-95% of what first- or second-year teams will need to significantly "improve their game". The writing is clear, and should be accessible to middle-schoolers. Trobaugh provides screenshots of example EV3 programs, and these are very helpful, but my biggest critique of the book is that some of the larger programs' text and parameters are almost unreadably small. Hopefully the next printing can split the programs onto multiple lines (maybe 4-5 modules each?), and/or take screenshots zoomed out on a larger monitor, to improve readability. A reader could also wish for more examples of clever attachments or ways to solve particular missions, to get them thinking creatively.Twice in Chapter 5, I think the author meant to say that the optimal distance from your color sensor to the field mat is 2-3 "mm" instead of "cm". And he mentions TechBrick, a poorly designed website with many outdated references (like “New” NXT books from 2007), instead of the more modern and highly rated ev3lessons site. But except for these, the book is well-edited, and is a much-needed and useful aid for early stage First Lego League teams.

Bought this for my son (current 6th grader) who is in his 3rd year of lego robotics. He found this to be extremely user friendly and easy to follow. The designs allowed him to build upon his original concepts and tweak his bot with improvements. Lots of lessons in here that his teacher did not have time to share. Money well spent to help improve his ideas and score more points in the competition. Depending on how advanced your lego robotics program is, this may or may not be of value. Our program is only 5 years old and still trying to find its rhythm with a few competitions under our belt.

I'm an FLL coach with experience coaching teams who have competed at both the state and World Festival levels. I own most of the FLL/EV3 books in print and while each book is worth the purchase price, this one provides the best overall background your team will need to do well in competition. If you buy more than one FLL book, I would recommend "Programming Lego EV3 MyBlocks. "Art of Lego Mindstorms EV3 Programming", "Your guide to Excel in First Lego League", and the "Lego Mindstorms EV3 Idea Book".

Enjoyed the book. Build the unit he described and programmed it with a friends Granddaughter. It really operated wuite well. It is a good jumping off point to get a heads up on what a good competition vehicle should be like. It is structured around the First Lego League Competitions.

My great grandson has been building with the EV3 system since he was 5 years old and, at 9 is continuing to create new things. This will provide even more inspiration.

I am glad i bought this book. We used its demo robot as a starting point and built a very solid base with many potentials. Strongly recommend to first time lego robotics players.

Great book for a FLL team. Better organized than any online resource I know of, and covers all the important parts of the robot game.Lots of good info for both beginning and intermediate teams.

For a first year coach trying to teach myself, this book was a great start. Very thoughtful suggestions and in lay-man terms

No era para mí, era un regalo y quién lo recibió se puso muy contento, es lo que esperaba y le saca mucho partido.

Ho scelto questo testo per avere indicazioni sulle competizioni Lego per i miei alunni. Lo sto trovando interessante e utilizzeró alcune idee nel lavoro con la classe.

It's a good resource for kids don't have lots of experience in FLL.