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Shameless plug, but I'm working with a startup that teaches middle-school (and up) autonomous robot programming within the context of Sumo Robot competitions. W

by blister 11y ago

Shameless plug, but I'm working with a startup that teaches middle-school (and up) autonomous robot programming within the context of Sumo Robot competitions. We're active in 6 schools right now in Georgia and hope to expand to the entire east coast this year. What sets our program apart is that we've developed a super low-cost robotics kit that lets us sell each student their own programmable robot for $100 each. I just spent the last four months writing the 8-week curriculum and associated text book. Our website is at http://www.sumorobotleague.com/ http://www.sumorobotleague.com/ and we'd love for you to sign up for our mailing list. We're trying to figure out manufacturing right now so that we can crank out thousands of robots to keep up with demand. If you're interested in robotics, I think our kit and program is probably the easiest introduction that you'll find.

rubicon33 11y ago
Would this be applicable for someone with lots of programming experience, but zero automation / robotics experience? I'm a hands on, self learner. I don't do well in a structured course, but prefer to learn by tinkering and building (while referencing good resources). I'd love to start with something like this, but wonder since it's marketed to middle school kids, if it would be too trivial? On the other hand, I have zero experience in this field, so maybe it would be perfect...?
- MrQuincle 11y ago
  I don't know about this particular robot, but if you're up for it, you can built your own quite easily. https://dobots.nl/2012/08/26/the-dotty-robot/ https://dobots.nl/2012/08/26/the-dotty-robot/ https://dobots.nl/2012/06/19/implementing-swarm-behavior-with-a-group-of-small-robots/ https://dobots.nl/2012/06/19/implementing-swarm-behavior-wit... https://dobots.nl/2014/02/26/dotty-update/ https://dobots.nl/2014/02/26/dotty-update/ This uses the Arexx frame and on top of that 3D printed hulls (so it's under say around a 30 bucks). We considered Kickstarting it, and we might actually do this one day. Especially with the wireless charging added it to, it's actually quite a cool thing. :-) Most important of all, this allows you to build normal Android apps to do all kind of interesting experiments. That's more than you can do on any robotic platform!
- blister 11y ago
  Yeah, that was kind of the intention. Our kit was designed to be as easy as possible. It just has two motors, a sonar sensor, three IR sensors (for line detection) and a buzzer. The book that I wrote has to take an approach that makes it accessible to kids with no programming experience, but if you're familiar with C++, you'll be kicking ass in no time. This is the exact sort of setup that I started with (professional engineer of 15 years). Two years ago when we started the program, we built it off of an Arduino and some Pololu kits. It was a great kit, but ended up costing about $150. After the success of our program in the schools, we spent the last year developing a custom PCB that has everything all built in. It has an ATmega328 chip, motor controllers, and sensors all pre-soldered on one board. It's still Arduino programming, but on our custom device. That got our manufacturing costs down to less than $50/kit and lets us sell the whole package to schools for about $100 per kid. Now the hardest part, as I mentioned, is figuring out manufacturing at scale so that we can crank out thousands of these little suckers. Send me an email (in my profile) and I'll get you a free copy of the ebook. I'd love some feedback from a programmer, if you're willing.
  - rubicon33 11y ago
    Right on. I'm definitely going to get one of these then. I'll shoot you an email.

by blister 11y ago

rubicon33 11y ago

Would this be applicable for someone with lots of programming experience, but zero automation / robotics experience? I'm a hands on, self learner. I don't do well in a structured course, but prefer to learn by tinkering and building (while referencing good resources). I'd love to start with something like this, but wonder since it's marketed to middle school kids, if it would be too trivial? On the other hand, I have zero experience in this field, so maybe it would be perfect...?

MrQuincle 11y ago
I don't know about this particular robot, but if you're up for it, you can built your own quite easily. https://dobots.nl/2012/08/26/the-dotty-robot/ https://dobots.nl/2012/08/26/the-dotty-robot/ https://dobots.nl/2012/06/19/implementing-swarm-behavior-with-a-group-of-small-robots/ https://dobots.nl/2012/06/19/implementing-swarm-behavior-wit... https://dobots.nl/2014/02/26/dotty-update/ https://dobots.nl/2014/02/26/dotty-update/ This uses the Arexx frame and on top of that 3D printed hulls (so it's under say around a 30 bucks). We considered Kickstarting it, and we might actually do this one day. Especially with the wireless charging added it to, it's actually quite a cool thing. :-) Most important of all, this allows you to build normal Android apps to do all kind of interesting experiments. That's more than you can do on any robotic platform!
blister 11y ago
Yeah, that was kind of the intention. Our kit was designed to be as easy as possible. It just has two motors, a sonar sensor, three IR sensors (for line detection) and a buzzer. The book that I wrote has to take an approach that makes it accessible to kids with no programming experience, but if you're familiar with C++, you'll be kicking ass in no time. This is the exact sort of setup that I started with (professional engineer of 15 years). Two years ago when we started the program, we built it off of an Arduino and some Pololu kits. It was a great kit, but ended up costing about $150. After the success of our program in the schools, we spent the last year developing a custom PCB that has everything all built in. It has an ATmega328 chip, motor controllers, and sensors all pre-soldered on one board. It's still Arduino programming, but on our custom device. That got our manufacturing costs down to less than $50/kit and lets us sell the whole package to schools for about $100 per kid. Now the hardest part, as I mentioned, is figuring out manufacturing at scale so that we can crank out thousands of these little suckers. Send me an email (in my profile) and I'll get you a free copy of the ebook. I'd love some feedback from a programmer, if you're willing.
- rubicon33 11y ago
  Right on. I'm definitely going to get one of these then. I'll shoot you an email.