A friend of mine has a very smart and curious little girl who is 7 years old. She is obsessed with science and wishes to be an astronaut (no joke). Anyway in the past few months she has become very excited about robots and wants to dibble and dabble in them. So here is the question for you fellas...What is a good platform to start the daughter on? I was thinking possibly Lego Mindstorm but I am worried that that still might be a little advanced. Her parents are both brilliant and technically competent...not engineers but they should not have any problems. Thoughts, comments, questions, recommendations?
My 10 year old triplets did LEGO robotics at day camp
It was last year, so they might have still been 9. Anyway, with triplets, I get a statistically significant (okay, maybe not) sample every time we try something. One of the 3 had trouble keeping up, but I am not sure he was enjoying it as much. It was instructor led and they just did some basics - using sensors to trigger moving servos. they didn’t really make a robot in the first level. They haven’t been back for the next level yet as they keep trying different things. It’s a track out camp for year around school kids (they get just as many days off as other kids, just broken into more smaller chunks). Last time they designed and built scale model bridges and then stress tested them. Let me know if you want me to ask if there is a standard course they are following.
My boys (5&6) and I have a lot of fun with Brainbox (Snap Circuits in the US). It’s an electronics kit, and although we’ve not got it I do know that it has a 4 wheel 'bot that can integrate with it. We’ve got a lot out of building a circuit with their kit, and then rebuilding it on a breadboard with normal electronics. Recommended, and not too pricey.
Little kids can do amazing things with lego NXT and mindstorms software. It uses a VPL (visual programming language) and incorporates legos which are familiar to kids. Having been a judge for lego robotics competitions for three years now I have to say it is designed with kids in mind.
There are also basic kits which may be a good starting point:
I started out with Lego Mindstorms, then started using the Picaxe microcontrollers as well. While Picaxe excels in embedded projects like remote weather stations, I still prefer Mindstorms over Picaxe for things like robots and things that require a bit more processing power. The graphical programming is fairly easy to learn, once you know the basics of programming like loops, variables and basic math. And, if you do outgrow it, there are more powerful languages like NXC and RobotC available.
The hardware is fairly easy, it is Lego after all. It is Technic, which is a bit harder to assemble than regular Lego bricks but it’s really not all that hard once you learn the basics of it. The basic models in the NXT 2.0 are better than the models in NXT 1.0, IMHO. They show the basics of building and programming and are fun to modify once you know a bit more.
She would need quite a bit of guidance from her parents but if she’s interested, and helped in such a way that keeps her from getting discouraged, then I think that the Lego Mindstorms would be the way to go. That’s my own very biased opinion.
One of the 3 had trouble keeping up, but I am not sure he was enjoying it as much. It was instructor led and they just did some basics - using sensors to trigger moving servos. they didn’t really make a robot in the first level. They haven’t been back for the next level yet as they keep trying different things. It’s a track out camp for year around school kids (they get just as many days off as other kids, just broken into more smaller chunks). Last time they designed and built scale model bridges and then stress tested them. Let me know if you want me to ask if there is a standard course they are following.