Robots and Physical Computing

Phiro Pro is a recently released education robot kit from Robotix Learning Solutions . Designed to be flexible, you can add LEGO to it or work without it; sensors on the sides, front and bottom; built-in speaker and RGB controllable 'headlights'. One of the other interesting features is the robot can be controlled in three general ways/modes: Using buttons on the robot to enter a sequence of moves - a bit like a Bigtrak ;  Using swipe-cards (see the figures below) Programming using: Scratch - Mac or PC Snap4Phiro - Arduino programming PC/Mac/Linux basded. Pocketcode on smartphone. The first two are fun and are also available on their lower-priced  Phiro Unplugged version , but the real (for me any way) is programming it. So far I have only played with the Scratch instructions (see below) - getting it to move to key presses and to get the 'headlights' to cycle through a range of colours. The software is free to download a...

A recently released kickstarter project website  http://www.robotixedu.com/phiro.aspx  has quoted research from the University of Northampton. This is an interesting product designed to teach children programming . In essence programming robots is good way to develop problem-solving skills. The publication mentioned can be found at Robots in problem-solving and programming  (Scott J Turner, Gary Hill), In  Proceedings of 8th Annual Conference of the Subject Centre for Information and Computer Sciences , Higher Education Academy Information and Computer Sciences Centre, Ulster, pp. 82--85, 2007.  [paper] With example related paper : Problems first second and third  (Gary Hill, Scott J Turner), In  International Journal of Quality Assurance in Engineering and Technology Education (IJQAETE) , volume 3, pp. 88--109, 2014.  [paper] Robotics within the teaching of problem-solving  (Scott J Turner, Gary Hill), In  IT...

In the previous two posts, mentioned the low-cost small devices are opening up new opportunities for robotics ( http://robotsandphysicalcomputing.blogspot.co.uk/2015/10/it-is-good-time-part-one-introduction.html ) and the rise of social robots in the home ( http://robotsandphysicalcomputing.blogspot.co.uk/2015/10/it-is-good-time-2-social-robots.html ) was considered. In this post and the next, 'small' robots (my phrase), relatively low cost robots, are considered. A few examples are discussed. Picobot One of the most interesting small robots on the market is the PicoBot from 4Tronix ( http://4tronix.co.uk/blog/?p=708 ).  These are small, relatively low-cost robots with a good range of basic sensors based around Arduino. A nice feature is they are quick to put together (5-10 minutes each for the two above).  The size, time to build and the radio modules make them an interesting option for playing with swarm robotics - if only I had the money. Don't let the swarm ro...