Ask HN: Robotics for a 5+ year old?

[bkmartin]

Hey Guys, My 5 year old has been doing lots of talking about robots lately and how he wants one that can do stuff that people do. I love his amazing imagination when it comes to this stuff and I would love to get him into it this Christmas. I'm looking for small robot starter sets that we could use as a first step learning tool. It should be one of those projects that gets a quick first result, even if very rudimentary and then build on top of that as time moves forward. My initial thoughts were a Raspberry Pi robot as that would probably be the most flexible moving forward, but might be a little over his head and he would be dependent on my free learning time to keep things moving forward. Any other options out there that might be good for a kid his age?

Thanks.

[saluki]

Lego Mindstorms are probably the best fit . . .

I coached a lego robotics team for the first time this year . . . FLL starts at age 8/9 till age 13/14. It was a great experience.

There is a Jr. FLL you might want to check in to for him. http://www.usfirst.org/roboticsprograms/jr.fll

Mindstorms will be challenging for a 5 yr old but you can help him build his ideas . . .

The retail version has everything you'd need to get started . . . and would make a good christmas present.

Our local science center has a class you can sign up and take to get some hands on time with the kit before investing in one or maybe you have a friend that has one you can borrow.

Also the next generation of mindstorm came out in the last 18 months or so . . . there are lots of FLL teams upgrading from NXT (old version) to EV3 (new version) so you might be able to get an NXT version from a team that has moved on to EV3 (every team usually have 2 to 3 kits).

Good luck with robotics . . .

[beardicus]

Piccolo is a neat little plotter/drawing robot that's open hardware: http://www.piccolo.cc/

Unfortunately it seems nobody offers a full kit, so you'll have to gather materials yourself. It looks like it'll take four or five orders... ponoko for the laser cut parts, seeed studio for the pcb, hobby king for motors, and so on. Also not sure it fulfills the "build on top of that" requirement either, though after it is built you could spend lots of time learning programming to make it draw cool things. Think LOGO with an actual pen!

[bcks]

Funny, I just posed a related question: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8652432

You might check out the Lego Wedo set, or Sphero: http://stemkids.io/robots/

Or perhaps Snap Circuits or LittleBits: http://stemkids.io/electronics/

[bkmartin → bcks]

I thought about the LittleBits last year, but they weren't available at the time (sold out I think). So then I thought about them again this year but he is talking about a Robot that can do stuff, even though LittleBits would be a good learning tool. The Mindstorms looks amazing and exactly what he would want to do. But I can't drop that kind of cash right now... so there in lies the dilemma. Even the NXT is a couple hundred on ebay. We will see what I can come up with.

[debacle]

Snap Circuits are good for teaching the basics of how electronics work.

MindStorms, in my mind, are really the best choice, despite the high cost. Nothing else is really as kid-friendly as I would like. My wife and I have purchased a few non-Lego sets and none of them have really been comparable.

[kallesverige]

Have you looked at those different Lego construction kits? Double present I would say :)

[lhorie]

Lego Mindstorms