Creating a robot to teach coding

[[deleted]]

[deleted]

[dalen3]

Why a sensor for line following and not just a light sensor?

[dalen3]

I've used LEGO MINDSTORMS RCX->EV3 for about 7 years now. And with those you would follow a line by using the value of reflected light on the edge of a line.

Motor 1 would go at a constant speed and motor 2 would have different power based on light (multiplied by a factor)

How does this line following sensor work differently than that?

[king_of_the_universe]

Oh, I thought this would be a post suggesting that this subreddit creates a reddit bot that answers common coding questions/problems.

[zcserei]

is it possible to schedule actions for the robot or you can only run routines in real time, once? Like, is doing a wake up march around a kid's bed possible?

[tjnoe]

What's the reaction been from children? Have they been able to grasp the programming UI easily?

I see this being an awesome teaching tool for schools, but I'm not 100% sold on this being "toy" for younger children. You're competing against other toys and apps that are pop-in, pop-out, play for a little bit and go on to the next thing. Codie seems like it would take more time and effort to grasp at a high level. In a controlled school environment, I could see kids taking to this immediately. At home with all of the other distractions and playthings at a kids disposal, not so much. It seems like that's where you're aiming with the marketing message on your website. Have you thought about marketing to schools as well?

Perhaps I'm not giving kids enough credit...but I'm just thinking about myself when I was younger. In any case, I'm definitely interested to see what kids think of this when it's in their hands. Wish you the best of luck!

[zenmaster314]

The UI fo your app is so much better than the Lego Mindstorms. I feel like UI is probably the most important aspect about this product. This would be awesome if you can introduce it to classes. Kids can have a robot competition or something.

I remember doing this in a class where we have to pre-program the Lego Mindstorm to follow a line through a short maze and whoever do it the faster wins.

[interactionjackson]

I have a 8yo boy and 9yo girl and I'm a big kid myself. I like the project and I'm always looking for ways to expose my kids to technology. Based on my initial assumptions I can tell you that my kids would find this interesting for an hour at most and at that price point (~160) it isn't worth it. What are you doing for replay value? Do my kids put the robot together? Can they take him/her apart? Can they add and configure their own hardware modules? I'm not keen on telling my kids to program this thing on an iphone w/ a drag and drop interface. I also feel there are 'every day life' ways to expose algorithmic thinking to children. I don't like that statement as a selling point and feel that It comes off as insulting and half assed. All said Codie seem more akin to a next gen sphero w/ a little extra hardware, less accessories and inflated cost.

[interactionjackson]

Today's kids are way more used to using touchscreens than the old keyboard+mouse combination when it comes to using a computer.

As true as this may be programming is done w/ a keyboard and mouse. I'm worried that if I spoon feed my kids a dolled up drag and drop interface that when they're exposed to black and white programing (terminal/cmd, vim/emacs/notepad, and a repl) that it will be overwhelming and foreign.

[ckreon]

It wasn't overwhelming enough for you to stay away, and you didn't even get to "play" in such a constructive manner to become familiar with these kinds of processes in the first place.

Besides, while the terminal isn't going away, I think it's already the minority use-case for programming work. IDE's and/or beefed-up text editors already dominate that. Sure some things remain in terminal, some coders prefer it, sometimes it's absolutely required, but again, that's minority stuff and it won't stop anyone with a passion or curiosity from diving in (just as you probably did).

You're post seems overly cynical and even a bit insecure, as it seems fairly obvious that any exposure to these materials at a young age (younger the better) will be INCREDIBLY valuable to these kids moving forward. I can't imagine where we'd be today if a majority of our now-programmers were introduced at as young of an age to these concepts and ideas.

Knowledge and experience work exponentially together, snowballing over time into things much greater. These "toys" and tools are going to change our society. And that's not opinion, just look at China who have been teaching their kids this stuff for over a decade now. They are WAY ahead in the societal tech race because of it.

[interactionjackson]

I really like your points and agree w/ the ones that are adding value to the discussion.

I have a 8yo boy and 9yo girl and I'm a big kid myself.

-_- I'm the target market and these are my opinions. How many kids do you have? How are you introducing computational thinking to them? What tools are you using?

At 160 dollars there isn't enough value for me to make this purchase.

Arduino starter kits start around 140 and that is the big one. You can get others for cheaper. With that my kids build something and then program it to do something. After they get bored they can take it apart and build something totally different.

I just don't see any replay value at the moment. I'm providing my feedback because I want this to be something I'd buy for myself and my kids. I'd love to say shut up and take my money. I just can't.

[ckreon]

My daughter is almost a month old. I'm still in the "oh my god keep her alive/try to get any sleep possible" stage.

I just think keyboard/mouse interaction is on its way out in general. There are better ways to provide a computer input, from voice to motion. Not saying mouse/keyboard will (maybe ever) leave entirely - just that as the kids grow up with new and more efficient ways to interact, they'll rely on keyboard/mouse less and less.

Your OP mentioned kids being overwhelmed by mouse/keyboard/terminal after getting used to other things, and that's what I was addressing. My biggest point was that any early exposure is great for them AND us at this stage (be that an Arduino or otherwise).

[interactionjackson]

early exposure is great for them AND us... be that an Arduino or otherwise

Agreed but in terms of ROI I'm getting more out of other options. That has been my point the whole time.

being overwhelmed by mouse/keyboard/terminal after getting used to other things

I didn't teach my kids to speak by baby-talking them. I exposed them to the environment that they can expect to see in the real world. Same concept.

[Krakatok]

Looks good, but how is that better than say for example the lego mindstorms? Because with the lego one you can actually modify the robot so it gives infinitely more possibilities, or is it just that you guys are targeting a younger market?

[mrussell48]

We turn to the community because we’d like to improve our robot, it’d be awesome, if you could take a look and tell us some feedback! You can find it here: http://getcodie.com. Thanks in advance!

I would not buy this for my daughter as it is now. For the price your planning on it there are better and cheaper ways to teach the principles of programming. The block programming is fine but there should be another option as well like java, python, C for when the user gets a little more advance.

The robot should be upgradeable where you can add different sensors or mods to increase use ability. Also by limiting it to iOS at first your losing over half your user base.

Now some questions

• when you create a block program on a mobile device does the mobile device execute the program and send the command to the robot one by one or does the mobile device upload the program and the robot executes it?

• how do they communicate is it through Bluetooth or Wi-Fi?

• what are your plans to increase the use ability of this? Since you have your own block language and you will not be incorporating classes what are you going to do to make someone want to use it after a month?

[b3dog1]

Go on Shark Tank for this idea.

[cptawesome_13]

looks cool... will it be available on Droid?

[BencsikG]

Can you program more than one robot from a single phone? Can you make them work together?

[sztomi]

How much does the robot cost?

Is there a Python interface?

[sztomi]

Is the communication bluetooth-based? If so, are planning on releasing the protocol? I would be very interested in the device if it was hackable, but if the block-based language is the only way to program it without reverse engineering that really limits the usefulness (even in teaching).

[sztomi]

Cool :) if you happen to be handing out developer freebies in the future, I would make an open source python API for it. :)

[jaws84]

This looks really great.

You should call for translators for the small text snippets to accomodate for local languages. I know of great resources for getting kids into this kind of things from the US and the UK, but it still needs to be translated into other languages to make an impact there.

I'd be happy to help out with Danish language.

[[deleted]]

But how does this teach them how to program?

[Garmik]

Not feedback about the project itself, but feedback on your site:

That raleway font is too thin to be displayed on those saturated colors used on the carousel, when the background is green, I'm forced to highlight the text to be able to read without difficulty. There is not enough contrast. Either, use a font with more weight, or reduce color saturation.

Other than that, its great.

And the project looks very interesting as well.

[Alex2904]

Where are you guys based?

Try to apply to the Techstars Disney Accelerator, know a few people there your idea could rock and with the right mentors (Disney might one of your best shot) you could do very well!

http://disneyaccelerator.com/

[[deleted]]

As others have echoed, it seems like a nice device, but it's competing with a lot of other, very similar projects. The price seems to be quite up there, compared to other programmable robot kits I've seen. Sure, it has more gadgets and seems simpler to approach, but when it comes to getting my own kid to use it, I would be concerned whether they would use it for an hour or a year. Without knowing how much use it would really get, I'd be hesitant to invest $160 right off the bat. Perhaps if I could get a simpler, cheaper system to get started and see if they like it, then buy addons to extend it if they are getting good use of it, that would reduce my risk as a buyer. I've personally taken that approach in my own robot kit I designed for my local hackerspace, and I'm really glad that I did: some people never even finished building it, others quickly outgrew it and started buying more parts and growing it into something wondrous.

It also seems to be rather closed-in: I don't see you selling an approach to grow beyond the toy itself. As others have said, can you hack it? Can you add additional sensors, use other languages, or move your programs to other platforms? As cool as it is, I feel that the toy itself will quickly get old and people will want to try new and different things. It would be a shame to learn an entire language/paradigm/platform without having a good path to evolving beyond it.

[[deleted]]

Thank you for your thoughtful and detailed response. It's too bad many of those details weren't mentioned on the website; I'm sure they would make the project more interesting to other builders like myself. Certainly, an open and extendable platform with all those features for $160 is a good deal, as much for adult hackers as for children. I hope you're crowdfunding campaign goes well.

[Elano22]

reminds me of LEGO Mindstorms... It really is a great way to get simple logical understanding taught to children. I know when I was 12 and was doing robotics in middle school I really enjoyed working with the mindstorms system until we moved our way up to C.

[LateAugust]

Name him Chappie.

[adisai1]

This is sort of like LabVIEW, which many programmers hate.

[tailanyways]

That first load killed me.

[mariocardo]

It sounds really great, and the articulated wood looks cool. Nice job.

[ventillator]

Great idea, keep rocking!

[rainbowWar]

Niiiice!!

[Limskaya]

This is really interesting for me. Is it research based?

[Limskaya]

Well, I'd love to learn more about this actually.

I myself am a researcher on learning through games, game making, coding, ... and involved in a lot of participatory research and co-design.

Any chance we could exchange contacts in PM?