Toy robots

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As toy robots are robots referred to as toys were built for children and adults. The spectrum ranges from simple robot figures to freely programmable, autonomous robots.

Areas of application

Toy robots are not only relevant as toys, but are used within robotics as inexpensive standard platforms for research and teaching. Thus, Lego Mindstorms by Lego and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology designed for this application and to the Aibo was an international robot soccer scene from which the Sony Four-Legged League emerged as a discipline of the robot football. The robot kits of the qfix series, which are often used in schools, have been in Germany since 2004, and the programmable iPitara system has been in existence in India since 2009 .

programming

Toy robots are usually programmed using a simple graphic programming language on the PC. Here, for example, different behavior patterns of the robot can be activated, sequences of activities can be defined or a program flow can be formulated similar to a program flow chart. Lego Mindstorms uses a slimmed-down version of LabVIEW , ROBO-Pro is available for Fischertechnik , qfix uses qfix Grape .

Known toy robots

Other well-known robots for children are, for example, the Dash robot and the Tinkerbots kit. The special thing about these devices is that the user can program and control the device via smartphone. For example, there is an app for Dash called Blockly. Similar to the programming software Scratch , complex processes can be implemented with the help of the graphical user interface and children learn to program through play. The Austrian company Robo Wunderkind offers a range of Lego-compatible robot kits that can be programmed by children as young as 5 years old using apps.

See also

literature

  • Deborah Jaffe: History of Toys: From Spinning Tops to Robots . History Press Sutton Publishin, Stroud 2006, ISBN 978-0-7509-3849-5 .
  • Alan Bunkum: Toy Robots from Japan: Techno Fantasies . Schiffer Pub Co, Atglen, PA 2007, ISBN 978-0-7643-2274-7 .
  • Teruhisa Kitahara, Yukio Shimizu: ICONS, Robots & Spaceships . 3. Edition. Taschen Verlag, Cologne 2002, ISBN 978-3-8228-5566-9 .
  • Fraunhofer IAIS: Roberta series . Fraunhofer IRB, Stuttgart.

Web links