Overview of glands for practicing robotics with children

UPD: the material below has received many useful comments, so it has been completely revised: habrahabr.ru/company/makeitlab/blog/252015

Now we are preparing a new playground for children. In the process of preparation there was a question of choosing a platform on which we will train. On this occasion, we prepared a review of the available platforms with a justification of the choice. The document seems to be interesting, I decided to publish it here. Some things are very simplified, since the text is intended not only for hardcore techies.

Lego

The most common children's designer of robots and the most common designer in general. In Russia, 80% of children study at Lego. It has the following advantages:

1. Large methodical base in Russian;
2. The teacher is required not very high qualifications;
3. The designer is very durable; children rarely manage to break something.

Disadvantages:

1. Initially, this is still a children's designer, not intended for serious tasks;
2. The designer is closed, incompatible with anything, the manufacturer artificially creates obstacles so that the components of other designers can be hooked to it and develop its own components;
3. You can program either in visual programming environments or in C ++.

In our experience, Lego is good for children up to grade 7, for those who are older, something else is better.

Fishertechnic

http://habrahabr.ru/company/neuronspace/blog/243929/
In general, repeats the ideology of Lego. In comparison, it has a number of interesting additional elements: pneumatic drives, chemotronics, ionistors, electrochemical supercapacitors, etc. There are special kits that simulate various kinds of production. If Lego is a general development toy, then fischertechnik is more engineering and developing, but it is still a toy.
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There are other designers, the main meaning of which is to demonstrate to the children any particular interesting engineering elements. They have quite a narrow application, we have not studied them in particular.
The cost of Fishertechnic roughly corresponds to the cost of Lego.

Arduino

Arduino is the most common platform for adult robotics and electronics, the second most common among children. The development is completely open, it has many branches.

There are three areas of work for children with Arduino:

1. Assembly of electrical circuits. The corresponding kits are supplied by Ampere: wiki.amperka.ru;
2. Assembly and programming of the simplest machines, like this: amperka.ru/product/turtle-chassis . Basically, these cars are engaged in driving along a drawn line (line-switches);
3. Build more complex mechanisms from the designers. (Constructors for arduino are a separate big topic, we will focus on it below.)

Advantages of Arduino:

1. Open and compatible with everything in the world;
2. Versatility: sixth graders can work on it, and adults can do serious projects;
3. Relatively low price.

Disadvantages:

1. Comparative fragility (it is an open electronic board with a small level of protection against incorrect connections);
2. You can program either in visual programming environments or in C ++. Parallel processes, image processing and so on are not supported.

Raspberry Pi and Analogs

Raspberry Pi is a computer running the Linux operating system that has the size of a buck card. On it you can run the same programs, do the same calculations as on the desktop computer (there are video outputs, audio outputs, USB). Small size, coupled with low power consumption allow you to install it on mobile robots.

Raspberry supports the Python programming language. This is the most promising educational programming language. In the west, educational institutions gradually transfer their educational programs to it. Support of this language, in our opinion, is the main advantage of Raspberry.

The advantages of Raspberry over Arduino are described above. The disadvantages are as follows:

1. Compared to the Arduino, the Raspberry is about twice as expensive;
2. Connecting external devices (sensors, motors) to it is much more difficult if you do not use special expansion modules.

Raspberry has many analogues, among them Raspberry is the cheapest and most common. The latest version of Raspberry is not inferior to its counterparts in its characteristics, so we work with it.

The most promising direction now is the combination of Raspberry and Arduino. There are the following options:

1. Integrating Arudino connectors into a board similar to Raspberry ( for example ). Thus, Raspberry loses its disadvantage the inconvenience of connecting external devices;
2. Connect to the original Raspberry special adapter with arduino connectors ( for example ). This gives the same advantages as in the previous paragraph, plus additional flexibility appears to this: you can detach this adapter and use the original Raspberry connectors (rarely, but it is also more convenient with them). In addition, if one board burns, it does not hurt to continue using the other;
3. Integrating a Raspberry processor, Arduino processor and connectors into one ( http://www.udoo.org/ ). In addition to the advantages of the preceding paragraphs, such a scheme offers the advantages of a dual-processor circuit; some things on it are much more convenient to do;
4. A special Arduino board with a connector for connecting to the Raspberry (since both projects are open, they interact perfectly with each other). In addition to the advantages of the preceding paragraph, this gives flexibility.

The cost of the first option in the west is about $ 50, the second option is $ 75; the third is $ 100; the fourth is $ 60. (To get the cost in Russia, these prices must be multiplied by about 2.) At the same time, the latter option provides the greatest opportunities and flexibility.

For example, the following usage scenario can be implemented: first, when a child is just beginning to study robotics, he works with Arduino in a graphical programming environment; Further, when it grows out of the graphical environment, we connect to the Raspberry arduin, and the child starts programming in Python, using various additional features. If expensive Raspberry is not available, the child can program the existing arduin in C ++.

Mechanical Designers for Arduino and Raspberri

The most famous is Huna Thor :
In fact, this is an old Soviet metal constructor with screws (by the way, he has his own controller besides the arduin). A constructor similar to it offers Trick: blog.trikset.com/p/blog-page_6355.html

In our opinion, the most promising is the recently appeared Multiplo constructor. Unlike other designers, his main parts are not metal, but are cut from a three-millimeter plastic. Due to this, they can be cut on their own on a special machine (especially since 3D models of parts are laid out in open access, the project is open source). If a special machine is not available, parts can be cut by hand using a jigsaw and drill.
In addition to the screws in the Multiplo plastic rivets are widely used, thanks to this the designer is much more interesting and faster to assemble.

The cost of a Huna with Arduino on board is roughly equivalent to the cost of a Lego. The cost of Multiplo with Arduino on board is about one and a half times lower.

Advantages of designers on screws before Lego:

1. Children develop fine motor skills;
2. Nowhere in the production are not used fasteners as in Lego, everywhere fasteners on the screws.

The disadvantage is that on the screws the assembly of the constructor is somewhat slower and less interesting.

Conclusion

We settled on the arduino + Raspberry Pi version + Multiplo constructor.

Until the seventh grade, something else is needed; we have not studied this question much so far.

If the task is to instill interest in some narrow industries, then you need a Fishertechnic or equivalent.

If the task is to teach the children to cut and print the parts themselves, then it is better to take Multiplo as the basis.