
iRobot's New Education Robot Makes Learning to Code a Little More Affordable - sohkamyung
https://spectrum.ieee.org/automaton/robotics/home-robots/irobot-new-education-robot-root
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elil17
Learning to code just got even more affordable: instead of spending $129 on a
toy robot (which you still need a device to use), I download Scratch or one of
many other free learning oriented coding tools.

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beenBoutIT
The kids with parents who buy them the nice robots learn less and lose out in
the long run. A used ThinkPad(well under $100) and an active Internet
connection is all anyone needs get started.

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ajzinsbwbs
I had internet access since I was about 10, used the internet constantly
though my teenage years, and did great in math and science in school (winning
contests and the like). I was also interested in computing and thought it
would be cool to know how to code. I even tried to follow some tutorials to
learn, but I guess they didn’t explain the tooling so I never managed to run
my code. I was missing some tiny experience of running a compiler that would
change coding from a thing I’d read about to a thing I’d actually do. I didn’t
actually learn to code until I took a computer science class in college. I
took it up quickly, and have since had a very good career as a software
engineer.

I had the hardware, the aptitude, the interest, and the free time, but it just
didn’t happen until I was in the right environment to give me a bit of initial
hand-holding. I guess my point is, don’t just throw your kid in front of a
computer and assume they will learn to code. They might end up writing
fanfiction, playing an MMO, or trolling on 4chan instead.

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kiba
Got lucky. Never did all these things.

But I got so interested in game programming that eventually a project struck
with me and I kept with it and wrote code more than ten lines long.

The Ruby programming language and a little book(don't remember at the moment)
from the public library was my gateway drug.

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javagram
This is basically a modern “Turtle Robot” similar to Logo, I guess.

I wonder how much, if at all, seeing the robot move in real life is beneficial
vs simple onscreen display like Logo provided.

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bonestamp2
I can tell you. I first used Logo Writer when I was in 2nd grade (in the 80s)
and I thought it was cool. But, the "usefulness" of computers never hit me
until the following year when a teacher brought in the Turtle robot and I made
my logo writer "program" write to actual paper. Everything fell into place
from there. I went to the library and got books to learn BASIC. I went to
computer "camps" in the summer at the local university. Etc. I've been a
professional programmer now for 15 years. Taking programs from the screen to
hardware is what got me really excited.

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ianbicking
Here's the specs on it: [https://store.irobot.com/default/root/irobot-root-
rt0/RT0002...](https://store.irobot.com/default/root/irobot-root-
rt0/RT00020.html)

Basically:

1\. Capacitive touch zones (basically buttons?)

2\. Bumpers

3\. Light-sensors

4\. Gyroscope

5\. Accelerometer

6\. Two wheels with encoders

7\. Piezoelectric speaker and a couple lights

Not very interesting. It can wander around some with very minimal feedback. It
can't communicate, it can't sense many parts of its environment, since its
only ability to act is really its two wheels it can't interact outside of
wiggling and some beeps and boops.

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tdeck
Everyone complaining about how _this_ is impractical clearly hasn't seen a
Roomba try to clean a floor.

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hayksaakian
this reads a little too much like a press release

I'd appreciate some commentary from anyone with industry experience

how does this compare to other options in the field of educational robotics?

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kenni
If you’re looking for a cheap platform for learning to code I’d recommend
looking into the BBC micro:bit.

As a person whose job it is to help teachers teach kids computer science, it’s
a really versatile tool. We’ve taught kids from year 3 with MakeCode all the
way to the end of high school with micro python using the micro:bit. The
teachers themselves (who often have less experience than the kids) even really
get into it!

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WrtCdEvrydy
Damn, that's pretty good.

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lnsru
One cat get lots of wheels, cheap motors, ultrasonic sensors and fake Arduinos
for 129$. Though mummy with solder iron doesn’t look look that sexy as in
current photo.

Edit: I was thinking about this problem recently. There is LEGO camp with
their educational robots. Sets with power functions are great for the start.
Then there are these educational toys like in the article. And I don’t believe
in this at all. They will get boring soon and there is no way for upgrades.
There are educational microcomputers like micro:bit. I think they are great if
they were used in schools, but that part of education is parental topic in
most countries. And there is dyi corner, I have electronics lab at home. I
built a simple Arduino based vehicle with ultrasonic sensor that turned left
if encountered obstacle 50 cm away. It was most popular toy for weeks! Despite
duct tape and lack of aesthetics.

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Nexxxeh
This is the gateway, not the destination. It's a low-cost piece of kit that
removes a potential barrier to entry.

I can't tell most of my mates to build a robot for their kid to learn with. I
can't support one I built myself. I CAN tell them to pick one of these up to
help get their little monsters on their way to happily building SkyNet.

A lot of parents aren't going to DIY a robot for their kids. They don't have
the skillset and aren't going to learn it for something their kid might not
even enjoy dealing with.

They might recognize the Root rt0 as the spiritual successor to the Roamer and
Turtle they grew up with in school though, if they were in the UK at least.

I enjoyed using a Turtle, which is basically an ancient massive tethered
version of this, with the Logo programming language.

You can slap that Not-Lego plate on and grab a some Lego Technics, and
suddenly you've fitted a rocket launcher and you're programming a tank.

They can then graduate to Lego Mindstorms or an Arduino or micro:bit or some
Pi robotics kit afterwards.

And the Root rt0 will likely keep a good chunk of its value on resale.

The idea is to buy it and have your kids love it and outgrow it. It's the push
that makes them move, if you will.

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Nexxxeh
Whoever decided to call it a "Brick Top" presumably didn't watch Guy Ritchie's
masterpiece Snatch. Probably not something you want the kids Googling as
understandably, the top results are Alan Ford's character.

>Do you know what "nemesis" means?

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turnerc
Unfortunately I am yet to see evidence of these new "coding robots" actually
providing educational benefit, they seem to be more of a distraction from the
fundamentals of maths and science, and an even greater burden on an already
stretched education system budget.

Perhaps children aged 6 should be focused on reading and writing rather than
worrying about Moravec's paradox on a $200 bleeping pile of plastic.

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userbinator
_Perhaps children aged 6 should be focused on reading and writing_

...and given a Commodore 64 or ZX Spectrum to play with, along with a few
volumes of documentation. ;-)

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noodlesUK
I don’t know that we’ve ever come up with anything better than the Lego
mindstorms kits. Lego is an incredible way of teaching people basic physics
and engineering concepts, and mindstorms brings programming into the mix. With
other programming languages (RobotC and NXJ were used in my learning), it’s a
great way of teaching basic programming all the way up to things like sensor
fusion.

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WrtCdEvrydy
The issue here is really that you can't get the kids excited about software
unless it does something in the real world.

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dgellow
That’s so untrue. Kids love creating logical gates in Minecraft.

Show a kid how to create a small game and they quickly fall in love with
software.

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numpad0
Is this the replacement for classic 6xx Roombas with DIN remote port?

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neilv
In addition to hacking via the DIN port in Roombas, iRobot did some iRobot
Create models, which were strictly educational robots. Creates were mostly
Roomba hardware without dirty vacuum cleaner parts, and with some additional
features. They also did an optional microcontroller at one point, which
plugged into the Create, to supplement the built-in.

Some info about these is in the docs for the interfacing library I wrote:
[https://www.neilvandyke.org/racket/roomba/](https://www.neilvandyke.org/racket/roomba/)

This round Root with the pen at first glance looks like an old Logo turtle
robot, but has more features. And the optional Lego support is interesting.

(Lego has long had its own Lego Mindstorms microcontroller product series. And
starting before that, MIT and some other universities used Legos in
introductory robotics courses.)

It's nice to see iRobot still interested in education, and the Root looks
promising. One encouraging sign would be if a child could design and build
their own effectors and sensors, such as a gripper, out of Lego, and interface
them pretty easily with the Root (preferably not only with the pen up/down
mechanics).

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arkh
I'd like to know how it compares with Lego Boost. Same price range and it
looks like the same kind of programing and available sensors.

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newshorts
I owned a turtlebot at one point, love this company and what they are trying
to do for education.

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mensetmanusman
Wish they had released their lawn mowing robot this year. Another covid death.

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barbecue_sauce
Don't other companies already have those?

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mensetmanusman
They use annoying wires to find a boundary. We need wire-free systems :)

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rubicon33
Unpopular opinion: Why does everyone need to learn to code?

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askvictor
I teach coding to high schoolers, and often wonder the same thing. One reason
is it helps with problem solving skills - to code, you need to first be able
to decompose problems, and structure your thinking. So in that sense, it's a
proxy rather than a necessary outcome in itself; kind of like maths (very few
people need the level of maths taught in schools), but more modern and sexier.
What I've been wondering is, with the likes of Siri and Google Now being able
to be 'programmed' with natural language, how much longer we will need to
code, compared to talking to a computer/AI to achieve the required outcome.

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kiba
I think the most important skills/attitude an educator can impart is
'fearlessness', an essential trait when it comes to dealing with the many
errors posed by computers and the complexity of the modern world.

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baron816
I'm not totally sold on the merits of teaching kids to code. I didn't learn
how to code until I was 27 and turned out fine.

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czbond
I'm going to be downvoted if I don't preface this statement: CompSci, know
quite a few languages well enough. Good at it.

I sure as heck hope that when my kids are career age - they're doing something
a bit higher up the stack than programming. Even if it's meta-programming.
Programming is a convoluted way of interacting with business logic.

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imtringued
They already do. We don't have to touch a single assembly statement in our
entire lives if we don't want to.

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czbond
touche ;)

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czbond
More affordable than free....?

