Rober Coder Features Software

Pandemic Friendly

Online or In-Person

Originally, Robot Coders was developed as a system to allow students to learn about coding, robotics, and the future of work while working from home during the pandemic.

The result is an extremely flexible system that works great from small to large groups of people who are all in-person, or all online, or anything in between!

It works great in the classroom or as an after school club or activity.

Freely Available and Widely Applicable

Open Source

Open Source means that all of the software being used is freely available and all technical aspects of the hardware and software are published and known.

While there are many commercially made products for teaching students about Coding, Robotics, and Electronics, the potential for learning relevant skills is hugely reduced while the cost is higher.

Generally, even troubleshooting an open-source products is in itself a valuable learning opportunity. In contrast, trying to fix problems in a commercial system is simply spending time trying to get the product working so the actual learning can happen.

While commercial products might be somewhat easier to get up and running, Robot Coders has been made as straightforward as possible. Again, the learning you and your students undertake to get setup is valuable in and of itself and will likely be useful in other contexts.

Inexpensive and Future Proof

Affordable

Investing in a Robotics Platform or even Coding Environment can be expensive. For example, a single copy of the popular "Lego Mindstorms EV3" set can cost from $500 to $1000. Recently, Lego has announced this Robotics system is being discontinued.

In contrast, Robot Coders can be used with a huge variety of open-source platforms, both software and hardware. Examples are provided for very low cost robots built using Arduino UNO with Robot Controller Apps developed by students on the free Code.org website in their App Lab. However, there is many other hardware and software options that would work as well.

See Robot Cost Example for a breakdown of a sample $50 to $100 robot compatible with Robot Coders.

Engaging for Many Participants

Group Friendly

I have been a coach for 'First Robotics' teams in High School, as well as for 'First Lego League' (using Lego Mindstorms EV3). These are awesome programs for teaching students about Robotics, Coding, Team Work and more. However, they are also quite expensive and I find can be limiting in terms of easily getting many students involved in the coding and robotics challenges themselves at the same time.

Robot Coders allows for the simultaneous participation of multiple members of a team and multiple teams (again, regardless of location). This allows for a very flexible and engaging platform for students to participate in.

Multiple Challenge Modes makes for some very unique programming and team problem-solving opportunities.

Students can participate with phones, tablets, or computers.

Student Device Flexibility

Student's can use a wide variety of devices and any operating system to create their Robot Driving Apps.

Students will not need particular software configured on their devices to develop and participate in Robot Challenges.

Can accomodate a wide age and ability range.

Age and Ability

As a teacher I have always enjoyed teaching in a way that allows for gifted students to easily extend the tasks at hand while allowing students who struggle in a particular area to still have a sense of accomplishment.

I have used Robot Coders with students from Grade 6 to University Level and rarely failed to get a student able to meaningfully participate.

Focus on Programming, Problem Solving, Electronics, Robotics, Teamwork, Future of Work, Space Exploration in any combination.

Skill Development

It is easy to tailor your program to focus on a particular topic (such as Programming). However, there is also huge scope for using Robot Coders to teach other topics.

I have used Robot Coders to teach students about all of the topics listed. Below are some of the comments I have received in response.

I feel like this unit was really fun for me. Coding is pretty interesting in technology and shows me how much work and effort goes into making software's and programs.

I enjoyed doing the Robot Challenges in class. They were competitive and a lot of fun to try. I learned a lot about functions and variables and how to make corrections if I had any mistakes in my code. I enjoyed working with my friends and competing with my classmates, it was also quite amusing when the robots would fall off the edge of the course.

I love this course and wish it could go for longer. It is really fun to control the robots and look at them through the camera and it kinda feels like i just landed something on the moon. I learned a-lot of things and would love to learn more.

I learned more than I have in the entire school year! I had a lot of pleasure in the robot challenges because I learned to code and I was able to play.

Block Programming, Javascript, Python, Java, C++...

Students Can Learn and Use Any Language

While the simplest way to start is using the App Lab environment of Code.org, it is possible to let students use ANY language of their choosing in any programming environment.

The only requirement is that students can make a third-party HTTP request from within their environment (which is made even simpler in App Lab by having a built-in function student can call to perform the properly formatted request for them).

Unique challenges that test student's group problem solving in many ways.

Variety of Robot Challenges

The system supports 3 different Modes for challenges that encourage different ways of solving the challenges and emphasize team work.

• sync ModeAll commands received by all users are eventually run (queue)
• team ModeEach user can only send one command at a time.
• reject ModeAll commands received are rejected unless no command is currently running.

These three modes combined with using different Win Conditions create very different problem solving challenges.

See Challenge Modes for more details.

Self-driving robots or real-time driven robots, or a combination of the two!

Autonomous and Real-time Driving Modes

Various "Win Conditions" can be imposed on a challenge including fastest, least number of commands, and fewest rejected commands (team work).

If the win condition is "Fewest Commands", this encourages students to try to program their robot efficiently and drive co-operatively.

Each Robot Command can include several Robot Instructions, allowing for one command to put the robot into an essentially "Autonomous Driving Mode" while it completes the list of instructions. See Robot API for more details.

Authentic learning while having fun!

Fun

Below are some more student comments from using Robot Coders in a class.

LOVED IT!!!!!!!!!!!! It was so much fun, and though sometimes challenging, but rewarding. I think that more challenges (driving) would be great, and if we could be with different groups IF WE HAVE MORE TIME. Overall I think this is the funnest (it's a word) activity this whole school year, just wish that we had more times with it.

I had a lot of fun doing the robot challenge. I really enjoyed my team and the racing. I learned that communicating with my team made a large difference to the way that we raced. So I usually called my team mates when racing started.

The robot challenges were extremely fun, especially with the videos and exploration of future technology and space. I learned to understand the syntax of JavaScript and the similarities and differences it has to previous programming languages. I enjoyed the competition part of programming a rover on 'Mars', especially team mode where the class used teamwork to suceed.

Open source hardware allows for very flexible and transferable learning.

Electronics

Students can simply be provided with pre-built robots to use if focussing on programming, challenges, automation and the future of work, etc. However, it is also a great platform for teaching electronics.

Relevant topics that could be covered include

• DC vs AC
• Circuits
• Breadboards
• Resistors
• Integrated Circuits (ICs)
• Battery Types
• Energy Storage
• Motors
• Motor Controllers
• Microcontrollers

If using LiPo batteries, I do not allow students to hook up batteries until everything is working properly using a USB powered connection. Accidental short circuiting of a LiPo can be dangerous. Other less powerful batteries are also an option.

Robotics and Society

Robotics

In addition to teaching programming and electronics, this is also a great platform to include a general discussion of Robotics including how it is affecting industry and society.

Great context for exploring the role of Robotics, Automation, AI and the Future of Work.

Future of Work

I have also used this system as a backdrop for explorations of technology and the Future of Work.

How will technologies like automation, AI, self-driving vehicles, etc. affect the furture of work?

Mars Missions a natural connection to Robot Coders.

Space Exploration

There is a great deal of activity related to Missions to Mars. The online nature of Robot Coders, as well as the autonomous driving potential, makes this a great platform for linking to Space Exploration topics.