Kids Explore Robotics

My name is Aarav Agrawal, and I am an engineering student at Purdue. I have been working with robotics for some time now and wanted to bring the experience of building and programming robots to other kids. However, my engineer father and I couldn’t find an existing robotics kit that we truly felt taught the entire creative process of robotics. Most products were one-time-use, and lacked flexibility. The aspect of coding the machine to perform different actions was rarely included, and the inner workings of the motors and microcontroller were covered up. My dad and I believed we could have a more distinct, thorough, and immersive take on robotics, so we started designing. We sought to maximize educational value, so we wanted a relatively open-concept design that could be manipulated by its user. After a series of prototypes, Robby the Drummer became our final design. It can be used much longer after the initial construction as innovations are made to the code, so varying drum beats are performed. Kids can further explore their imagination with other original applications of their acquired knowledge of programming.