Robots and my kid

McCracken

McCracken

Logan Can't See This
Joined
Jul 9, 2005
Location
With your mom at a nice seafood dinner
So I may have mentioned it before but my little girl is a bit of a nerd. She's about to turn 7 and loves watching the Science Channel and building things. Recently, she's on a robot kick. All she wants to do is go to Lowe's and buy supplies to make a robot. When I was a kid I built "robots" but they usually required a lot of imagination. She's talking about screens with emojis to show the robot's emotions and it being able to do tricks and whatnot.

Now I know as well as you that there's grown ass men out there building high tech stuff at places like Boston Dynamics who could knock this down in a couple months but that's not me. I don't want to kill her enthusiasm by telling her I can't do any of this shit. I hardly have the time to keep a busted Jeep together. Just ask Jody and Logan. However, I do know that Lego makes some slick robot type builds that I could look into but I'm looking to see if any of you have some input. It doesn't have to be Lego because #1) that shit is pricey and #2) I'm sure there's some homebrew builds that we could manage on a larger scale. Plus, it gives me an opportunity to talk about crawling before you walk and building a skill set with tools.

So any help would be appreciated. Thanks.
 
Honestly legos would be a great start to the mechanical aspect of it and to a certain degree programming, some of the more advance stuff that is generally marketed for older kids involve basic programming and motors. But that stuff gets really expensive quick. My suggestion is to get her into arduino. The possibilities for arduino are endless and there are lots of basic builds she could do to get started or you could assist with. There are tons of cool projects that you can do and lots of great tutorials on instructables.
 
The idea of a child being in to something so advanced at her age is really awesome and its great that you want to help her further her interest. Here are some links from a quick google search to help you. Also, you may want to look into the local community colleges to see if they have any kind of robotics labs. Not saying to sign up for the classes, but you may be able to talk to an instructor and arrange a tour for your little girl. Winston-Salem State University has a robotics lab in the computer science building but I do not know if they would offer a tour or not.

KinderLab Robotics

Build, Play, Learn Through the World of Robotics

Welcome | Greensboro | Engineering for Kids

Robotics - Build Your Own Robot Kits, Robotics for Kids, Toy Robots - ScientificsOnline.com

Best Toy Robots and Robotics Kits for Kids
 
She's probably still a little young to handle the homebuilt side of things. However, there's a lot of Arduino-based robot kits on the market at various price ranges that really help teach the theory and principles behind the engineering. She may be a nerd, but 7 is pretty young to grasp a lot of the concepts. Period. I'd be afraid that throwing her a pile of parts and unfettered access to youtube would just end in general disappointment and a loss of passion. Starting small with a good kit, sitting down and helping her with it, then watching her light up when it actually does something will go a long way towards helping her drive to go further with it. Learning the basics of coding and automation now can really help build a foundation for a lucrative, or at least fun career in the future.
 
That KIBO kit looks awesome. Hell, look up "vibrobot" or "toothbrush robot" if you want to just sit down and knock out a relatively mindless afternoon project for next to nothing that may bring her several hours of enjoyment. Basically, you want to fuel the fire. Not throw her in it! ;)
 
7? So - going into 2nd grade?
See if your school has a FIRST Jr Lego League team. I *think* it goes down to 2nd grade. May be 3rd.
Jonas did it and it really helped feed his enthusiasm both for building and learning teamwork. They don't do complicated robotics (prhramming) until "regular" Lego League which I believe is 4-6th grade. That's all based on Mindstorms kits.

The Lego Mindstorms are pretty good. They have a drag-n-drop GUI that's super easy to learn. Unfortunately... not cheap. See if you can score a "lovingly used" kit on Craigslist, or about this time school teams are clearing out their old parts and buys new sets for the upcoming season, may be able to score some stuff.

Later on you can look forward to FIRST Tech Challenge and FIRST Robotics Challenge. Thats the real shit - teens build real robots out of wtfever stuff they can get their hands on.

There are also TONS of little Arduino-based DIY kits you can buy on Amazon for about $50 that have instructions on how to make a lot of different robots, and more importantly, how to program them.
IMO in the long run, learning how the programming works, and learning to code is the single more useful skill a kid can learn these days. Look at what jobs will be based on in 15 years - that's it.
 
sam24th said:
Honestly legos would be a great start to the mechanical aspect of it and to a certain degree programming, some of the more advance stuff that is generally marketed for older kids involve basic programming and motors. But that stuff gets really expensive quick. My suggestion is to get her into arduino. The possibilities for arduino are endless and there are lots of basic builds she could do to get started or you could assist with. There are tons of cool projects that you can do and lots of great tutorials on instructables.
Click to expand...
Never heard of Arduino but it looks cool. Amazon has some cool kits for not too much. Thanks!
superman27344 said:
The idea of a child being in to something so advanced at her age is really awesome and its great that you want to help her further her interest. Here are some links from a quick google search to help you. Also, you may want to look into the local community colleges to see if they have any kind of robotics labs. Not saying to sign up for the classes, but you may be able to talk to an instructor and arrange a tour for your little girl. Winston-Salem State University has a robotics lab in the computer science building but I do not know if they would offer a tour or not.

KinderLab Robotics

Build, Play, Learn Through the World of Robotics

Welcome | Greensboro | Engineering for Kids

Robotics - Build Your Own Robot Kits, Robotics for Kids, Toy Robots - ScientificsOnline.com

Best Toy Robots and Robotics Kits for Kids
Click to expand...

Thanks for the links. I'll cruise through them this afternoon.

DSM Turbos said:
Maybe start with something simple like coding a raspberry pi (or arduino like what was mentioned above)

We recently did a co.lab with some middle school children

Red Hat brings CO.LAB to Boston to teach girls coding, collaboration, and the open source way
Co.Lab

There are ton of other things you can do with a Pi as well that she could build. I'm sure I can dig up the details on how they built it if you want.
Click to expand...
She's a long way from middle school but I like the format they've created.

catfishblues said:
That KIBO kit looks awesome. Hell, look up "vibrobot" or "toothbrush robot" if you want to just sit down and knock out a relatively mindless afternoon project for next to nothing that may bring her several hours of enjoyment. Basically, you want to fuel the fire. Not throw her in it! ;)
Click to expand...
We built a toothbrush robot and I think that's what lit the fire :rolleyes:

RatLabGuy said:
7? So - going into 2nd grade?
See if your school has a FIRST Jr Lego League team. I *think* it goes down to 2nd grade. May be 3rd.
Jonas did it and it really helped feed his enthusiasm both for building and learning teamwork. They don't do complicated robotics (prhramming) until "regular" Lego League which I believe is 4-6th grade. That's all based on Mindstorms kits.

The Lego Mindstorms are pretty good. They have a drag-n-drop GUI that's super easy to learn. Unfortunately... not cheap. See if you can score a "lovingly used" kit on Craigslist, or about this time school teams are clearing out their old parts and buys new sets for the upcoming season, may be able to score some stuff.

Later on you can look forward to FIRST Tech Challenge and FIRST Robotics Challenge. Thats the real shit - teens build real robots out of wtfever stuff they can get their hands on.

There are also TONS of little Arduino-based DIY kits you can buy on Amazon for about $50 that have instructions on how to make a lot of different robots, and more importantly, how to program them.
IMO in the long run, learning how the programming works, and learning to code is the single more useful skill a kid can learn these days. Look at what jobs will be based on in 15 years - that's it.
Click to expand...
1st grade actually. I like the Mindstorms but at $350 I think I'll have to find another option.

but I also agree about the future. This is it but it's up to her. She'll carve her path but I'll try and support her nerd-ness the best I can.

shawn said:
Oh, you've got it easy. I have a 4yo and a 2yo that want me to build a working Optimus Prime.
Click to expand...
She might as well have thrown that at me. This robot dog she wants to create is redonkulous.
 
Arduino is great and I will send you a board and parts if you want to build something, but I think it might be a put off to a 7 year old, and depending on how much time you want to spend on learning the programming and setting up connections might be beyond what you want to screw with?
 
shawn said:
Oh, you've got it easy. I have a 4yo and a 2yo that want me to build a working Optimus Prime.
Click to expand...
So THAT'S why you bought that backhoe!
 
braxton357 said:
Arduino is great and I will send you a board and parts if you want to build something, but I think it might be a put off to a 7 year old, and depending on how much time you want to spend on learning the programming and setting up connections might be beyond what you want to screw with?
Click to expand...
this is my curiosity with the whole thing. I personally would like to but I'm not sure she will find it as interesting. she's still susceptible to "instant gratification". Even when I take her fishing she gets impatient. I figured I could learn the programming and she could do the hands on build portion.
 
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