Ask HN: What makes a good educational robot?

4 points by jgrizou 9 years ago | 2 comments

What criteria makes a good educational robot? - Wheels vs arms vs legs - Visual vs text based programming - Gamified vs serious - At home vs at school

I am interested in practical experiences and feeling you had using them/watching kids use them.

jgrizou 9 years ago |

I have used this one: https://www.poppy-project.org/en/robots/poppy-ergo-jr but not with kids around.

It is nice for makers as you get to build it and can modify its shape. It is a basic arm but with 6 motors you get more cool movement out of it. And it is controlled via a RPI and is all open source which I like.

But for kids I don't know if the age target is suitable, the project targets education https://www.poppy-project.org/en/education/ with visual programming and activities but I never tried..

philippz 9 years ago |

Start by asking what makes a good teacher. Then ask yourself which of those tasks can be done by a robot.

Teachers also have a pedagogical mission. They are supposed to teach social values. So you might want a robot with an AI good enough to analyse group behavior in real-time and intervene appropriately.