Mirobot is the latest educational, DIY robot launched on Indiegogo. although it’s not the cutest, or in fact, spectacular-looking robot designed to help kids learn how to code, it’s a pretty smart little critter.
In fact, the guys behind Mirobot wanted it to look rough and ready because they think it’s important children can see what’s going on inside the robots they’re tinkering with.
The chassis is laser cut, which keeps costs of construction down, despite most of the company’s competitors using 3D printing to create their machines.
For experimental children, parts are soldered together when the pack arrives, helping teach them about how robots are built as well as how they’re coded. A pre-soldered version is also available, which just snaps together, but that’s not really what Mirobot’s about.
Once they’ve built the chassis, kids can start coding by connecting Mirobot to the Wi-Fi network and then browse to its onboard memory where the scratch-like coding interface is hosted. The web-based GUI is easy to use, just dragging and dropping elements to make Mirobot do whatever you want it to do.
Once children have mastered this first step, they can start using programming language to get Mirobot doing more advanced tasks on their desktop.
One of the great aspects of Mirobot is that it’s completely open source – every single element can be modified according to your preferences, including the design of the robot and what it can do. As more people make more fun with Mirobot, they are added to the community for everyone to discover.
“One of the areas I’m most excited about Mirobot being used is in schools.” Ben Pirt, creator of Mirobot said. “Robots have been used in schools since I was a child and they make a great multipurpose educational tool.”
In the future, he plans to create education support materials to introduce the robot into schools and encourage children to learn how technology, engineering and coding works.
