Learning and Leading - August 2010

BUYER’Sguide

Robotics is an excit- ing way to learn or teach about science, technology, engineering, and math. It’s also a great way to build teamwork, leadership, and problem-solving skills.

Robot kits exemplify the phrase “some assembly required,” but that’s all part of the fun. Kits can have hundreds of plastic and metal parts along with a number of electronic components, including servo motors, battery packs, and microcontrollers (the robot’s brain). Some kits can be assembled into more than one type of robot. The Robo TX Training Lab, for instance, comes with 310 parts, and you get to choose which of its 11 models— everything from a forklift to a lawn mower—you want to construct.

Kits are often modular, allowing you to buy a box of additional parts to add func-tionality to your robot. One example is the Mindstorms Education Base Set that uses the Tetrix Building System, a platform that includes an assortment of wheels, gears, motors, and aircraft-grade aluminum connectors.

All of the robots featured
here are programmable. Some
even come with graphical
software that makes it easy
for beginners to generate
code. Fischertechnik’s Robo
Pro, for example, uses a flow-
chart utility that translates
building blocks into machine
language.