Ribbots Team Information
The Ribbots are a Robotics team from Cottage Grove, MN and are a part of FIRST® Lego® League Challenge. Our team is comprised of students in 4th-8th grade, high school mentors, and volunteer coaches. We are an independent team with nonprofit status through our fiscal sponsors, Hack Club.
The Ribbots had a successful rookie season (2022-2023). The team won the Core Value awards at their regional competition. In addition, the team qualified to the MN State Championships where they won the innovation project model award. The team was invited to compete in the 2023 Western Edge Invitational in Long Beach California along with 80 teams from around the world. The team competed well and gained significant experience.
The team continued it's success in the 2023-2024 season. The Ribbots won the Champions Award (1st place) and Top Robot Game Performance Score at the Woodbury Regional, which earned them an automatic berth to the 2024 MN State Championships. At the MN State Championships, they placed 11th for their robot game score. The received callbacks (top 7 teams) for programming, creative innovation presentation, and for their innovation project idea. They received a Judges' award for recognizing their impacts and logistical details in their innovation project and robot design presentations. Based on their performance results, they were invited to represent Minnesota at the American Robotics Open Invitational in New Jersey, along with 60 other high-performance teams from across the US. The Ribbots were partnered with a team from Pennsylvania as an alliance and their alliance was the runner up (finalist) for winning the Lightning Round robotics game.
The team is looking forward to the 2024-2025 season that is themed on oceans, "Submerged."
Current Team Motto: "Just Keep Swimming"
Como Zoo
Ribbots took a field trip to Como Zoo to learn more about some of the sea animals and problems they face. We learned that pollution is destorying the coral habitats.
About FIRST® Lego® League
FIRST® is a robotics program focused on the Core Values of innovation, impact, fun, discovery, teamwork, and inclusion. During the season, the students design, build, and program a robot that competes on a game table to score points by completing various missions. The students also complete and present an innovation project where they identify a real-world problem and develop a solution.
MN State Tournament (2023)
Western Edge Alliance with Teams from MN, Switzerland, and New Jersey
Team Building at an Escape Room
Team Pit Table for the 2023 Regionals
MN State Championships (2024)
2024 MN State Robot Game
2024 AROC Invitational
2024 AROC Lightning Round Finalist
2024-2025 Submerged Season
Robot Game and Design:
The Ribbots have a brand new robot that is our first attempt at slip on attachments. We are excited to add this feature to make our time in bases shorter. The robot features a color and distance sensor this season. We have named our robot "Trooper" after a dolphin the team has symbolically adopted this season. Our primary goal with the robot is to use as many passive attachments as possible to help make our missions more reliable. We added some new codes this season with learning to group codes with My Blocks.
Innovation Project:
The Ribbots started their journey for the project learning about how plastics can harm sea animals after attending the POP for a Porpoise virtual class with the National Marine Mammal Foundation. This inspired the team to do something about entanglement from plastics. The team decided to build a USV (Unmanned Surface Vehicle) that would be a motorized water toolbox that delivers tools and supplies to the rescue team when they are working to save an animal. They are building the USV out of materials purchased locally at Menards through team funds and donations. They created a logo and named for their prototype, the "Aqua Assistant." They tested the Aqua Assistant at the Woodbury Country Inn pool with a "mock" dolphin rescue and the USV navigated easily through the water to the dolphin! Their design won a national award in November receiving the Ocean Ambassador Service Award from the National Marine Mammal Foundation.
Aqua Assistant
This video shows the Aqua Assistant in action at a local pool where they did a mock dolphin resuce.
Beyond Just Robots
Programming
Mentoring new team members on the robot codes
Fundraising
Team dining fundraiser to help raise funds for the season
Training
Project Management Training at 3M
Robot Game
2023 Regional Robot Game
Celebrations
Team Pizza Party for 2023 Virtual Award Ceremony for Regionals
Mentorship
STEAM Camp "Brick Day Away." Teaching the next generation of young engineers.
Team Awards
2022-2023
2022 Regional Core Value Award Winner
2023 Minnesota State Innovation Project Model Award Winner
2023 Participants at the World Western Edge Invitational in California
2023-2024
2023 Regional Champions Award Winner
2023 Regional Top Robot Performance Award
2024 Minnesota State Judges Award
2024 American Robotics Open Invitational 2nd Place Lightning Robot Alliance in New Jersey
2024-2025
2024 National Marine Mammal Foundation's Ocean Ambassador Service Award Winner
Ocean Ambassador Award Winners
Virtual award ceremony celebration night
Lightning Round Runner Up, 2nd Place
2nd place with alliance at the AROC lightning robot game rounds
Donation Link for Team Sponsors