You could almost say it’s getting to be old hat for the Quantum Bots.

The team of four home-schooled Lorain County boys took its computerized LEGO Quantum 3000 ME robot to the University of Minnesota a week and a half ago, where they competed against nearly 70 teams from the U.S., Europe, Canada, Mexico, Iceland and South America in the High Tech Kids First LEGO League International Open.

Working with a coalition of three other teams of like-minded juvenile geniuses, the Quantum Bots scored a first place.

Unlike other competitions in which the team has done quite well — notching sixth- and second-place finishes at the 2006 and 2007 state championships before placing third at the 2008 state games — the Minnesota event posed new challenges that included a language barrier.

“A lot of teams spoke very good English, but one team we had didn’t,” said Michelle Johansen, one of the team’s coaches and mother of team member Bobby Johansen, 14, of North Ridgeville.

No problem — a translator helped them communicate with the team from Colombia in South America.

“It just took a little longer to tell them anything,” said Bobby, a quiet-spoken but assured eighth-grader whose LEGO and high-tech wizardry began as a second-grader competing at the annual LEGO Olympics at Lorain County Community College.

Bobby explained how it all went down while standing in front of the 4-foot by 8-foot table on which the Quantum Bots and the teams from Colombia, Iowa and Texas demonstrated their collective skills at brainstorming solutions for problems thrown at them at the world LEGO contest.

These ranged from reprogramming and redesigning each team’s robot to accomplish missions including planting trees in the green section of the table and installing a wave turbine in the blue portion.

“The idea is to simulate the global market by getting teams from various countries that don’t know each other to get together on short notice to work on international problems,” said Michelle Johansen. “This is a fun way to expose kids to that.”

Bobby’s teammates are Greg Knechtges, 13, of Grafton, and Avon brothers Carl Sadowski, 15, and David Sadowski, 11. While the teams had plenty of time to develop general strategies and plans of attack — which included talking with scientists and researchers — they were given a scant two to three and half hours in which to work together to come up with answers for the last-minute challenges handed to them.

“We had to figure out who was more reliable at what and let that team do certain jobs,” said Bobby.

Coolness under pressure was essential. Robots could only operate along prescribed paths, and teams had to guard against mid-course collisions. Ordinary tasks, such as putting solar panels on a LEGO house, had to be accomplished as well.

Creativity was important, too.

“We couldn’t let the robot touch or roll over the (upright) side of the board,” explained Bobby, who’s thinking about a career in robotics and engineering.

This led to a quick decision to suspend the trees on a green LEGO plate that could be swung above the board.

When he’s not conquering the world of high-tech LEGOs, Bobby plays baseball and basketball.

“You can’t just be a computer geek,” Michelle Johansen said.

Contact Steve Fogarty at 329-7146 or sfogarty@chroniclet.com.

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