LEGO and Amazon Announce Robotics/Voice Challenge
- By Dian Schaffhauser
- 10/18/19
LEGO and Amazon are challenging students to bring voice commands to robots. The two have announced a joint voice challenge, hoping schools will pick up on the contest as an in-class activity. The competition, which runs through the end of the year and is open to anybody, pushes students to create voice-powered experiences. Working in teams, they compete by producing a LEGO MINDSTORMS Education EV3 robotics creation that interacts with Amazon's Alexa using the Alexa Gadgets toolkit.
To help entrants, Amazon and LEGO have introduced four "missions" designed to help them through development of a "fully functional example…robot that interacts with an Alexa Skill."
Submissions need to include a video showing a working prototype, a walk-through showing how the project was created, working gadget source code and, as an option, assets and instructions that would allow others to recreate the project too.
Those who are among the first 100 participants to submit a complete entry will receive a $150 Amazon.com gift card.
One grand prize winner will take home $20,000 worth of Amazon gift cards, LEGO models and a trip to the LEGO headquarters in Denmark for a tour of the LEGO House and a meeting with LEGO toy designers. The winning creation will also be on view during the annual LEGO World event in Copenhagen. Finalists will receive sizable Amazon gift cards and LEGO products.
Registration is open now.
About the Author
Dian Schaffhauser is a former senior contributing editor for 1105 Media's education publications THE Journal, Campus Technology and Spaces4Learning.