Robots and Physical Computing

I have recently taken two robots to a Code Club, here are a couple of reflections/observations. Cozmo This robot produced by Anki is incredibly cute - a cross between Wall-E and a pet in some respects. The code below was produced by the 'Code-Clubbers' and gets Cozmo to speak move around and operate its forks at the front. Anecdotally, someone was trying to work on something but couldn't resist coming and having another look at what it was doing. Ohbot Ohbot provided a different opportunity to play with a robot, getting to move the mouth, speak and track faces. My first impression was some of the children were a bit wary, until they found out they could control what it says and that seemed to break the ice. All opinions in this blog are the Author's and should not in any way be seen as reflecting the views of any organisation the Author has any association with. Twitter @scottturneruon

The incredibly cute robot Cozmo became even more engaging recently with the ability to program it. A recent update to the Cozmo app (see related links) to include Code Lab allowing programming of Cozmo  through of a graphical programming approach based on Scratch Blocks . An example of the code is shown below, getting Cozmo to: Start moving around Wait until it see a face       Says Hi Everybody        Moves forward       Sounds like a cat       Looks down and then raises it's forks       Acts 'grumpy'       Acts 'happy' The video at the end shows this in action. It is an easy to use tool and with a lot of the Cozmo actions available in the blocks, put a few blocks together and very quickly you have Cozmo doing some interesting and often funny actions. Is it very flexible, no; but it is not meant to be - it is meant to be easy to use and i...

I suspect someone from Anki was watching Wall-E (not the first to notice that see verge article http://www.theverge.com/2016/6/27/12007772/anki-cozmo-robot-ai-toy-wall-e-pixar ) when they designed Cozmo it sounds, looks a bit like and has cuteness of Wall-E; but resembles the little cleaning robot M-O (which it is hard not to like); all crossed with a cute bulldozer. That is two ‘cutes’ in one sentence – this is a robot has this in abundance. From saying your name, to excitedly tapping the blocks, to victory dances when it wins a game. This is a smart little robot full of a lot of features that are revealed over the days you play with it. The video from the manufacturer, Anki, above gives some idea of the technical aspects of it. Anki have already produced an open-source SDK https://developer.anki.com/en-gb that is Python-based. Powering up Cozmo for the first time and connecting to the App is relatively easy and quickly you are into playing with it (I am tr...