As you know from decades of watching sci-fi movies, robots come in two metallic flavours: Helpful manservants that speak with an affected British accent or psychotic murder machines sent back from the future. But there are booming new categories that are going to benefit your child: educational robots for kids, robot toys for kids, and coding robots. If you’re looking to start the robot revolution in your own home, here are some consumer models that are programmed to be cool.
Meccano M.A.X.
Construct M.A.X. from scratch using 332 pieces, and once he’s built, children can interact with him in really cool ways.
Unlike past Meccano builds, M.A.X.’s building time is cut in half, and will take kids between one to three hours to build. The included booklet features clear, step-by-step instructions with detailed photos and diagrams for a seamless assembly. The box also comes with Meccano’s signature screwdriver and wrench, so no outside tools are necessary. M.A.X. uses advanced technology to combine artificial intelligence with robotics, so each robot will be personalized to each kid based on how they interact and play with him.
It’s important to download M.A.X.’s base level of knowledge into his mind before kids start playing with their newly-built bot. Simply download his software on the Meccano website and upload it to his brain using the included USB chord. The curious little bot will ask a lot of questions, and will eventually start remembering kids’ answers. For example, he may ask if you prefer pop music or rock music, and then days later will want to discuss rock music with you. He knows!
He will also interact with kids through a wide variety of impressive, emotive facial and physical animations, sound effects, and speech files. This robot can learn to tell jokes, sing songs, greet friends, go on patrol, and much more. M.A.X. is also designed with built-in IR sensors to help him navigate around obstacles, and he’s always eager to get out and explore. Kids can control their robot using voice commands, buttons on the MeccaBrain, or the free app.
Not only does M.A.X. have tons of commands he can listen to, but he responds amazingly fast. There are more than 15 voice commands M.A.X. will recognize, including “Let’s Dance,” “Tell Me a Fun Fact,” “Tell Me My Fortune,” and my favorite, “Let Me Introduce You.” With this command, kids can show M.A.X. different objects around the house, and he will learn what it is! For example, you can show him your smartphone, wait for him to scan it with his IR sensors, tell him what it is, and he will remember it for next time.
A built-in gaming platform provides another way to engage with this robot, and the more kids play with M.A.X., the more games they can unlock, including Would You Rather? and Two Truths and a Lie.
Red5 Tobbie
This little creature is designed to be easy-to-assemble and comes with a very well-explained, step by step instruction manual. Once he’s all together, Tobbie uses his robot intelligence to interact with you and he is even able to respond with gestures and emotions. He’s also got some fantastically futuristic robotic light effects and sounds. Tobbie has two modes that let him get around – ‘Follow Me’ and ‘Explore’. If you switch him onto ‘Follow Me’ mode, he’ll use his IR sensor to detect movement and follow anything that’s moving around. So, you can have Tobbie follow your hand, your pet, or another Tobbie! If you switch him onto ‘Explore’ mode, he’ll move around independently using his smart, infrared sensor to make sure he doesn’t bump into anything.
Sphero R2-D2
Sphero may be known for its spherical robots, but in our opinion, it's best creation is a decidedly non-spherical but very brilliant, R2-D2.
Controlled using a smartphone app, this diminutive droid has a range of animations drawn directly from the films, including authentic sound effects and LED flashes. You can control him directly from the app, set him to patrol, or even leave him to react autonomously as you watch one of the Star Wars films with R2 at your side. There's also an AR mini-game to enjoy. Ok, he's more remote-control toy than robot in the strictest sense, but R2 is one of cinema's most famous robots, and this is the most authentic R2 toy we've seen. You can also use him to learn how to code with the free Sphero Edu app.
Anki Cozmo
One of the best features of this little robot is what's called an emotion engine. That means Cozmo can react to situations as a human would, with a full range of emotions from happy and calm to frustrated and bold. If you pick it up, Cozmo’s blue square-shaped eyes will turn to angry slivers and its lift-like arms will raise and fall rapidly to exhibit its displeasure. Agree to play a game with Cozmo, however, and its eyes will turn into upside-down U’s to show glee. When it loses at a contest, it’ll get mad and pound the table.
The robot can employ facial recognition to remember faces and recite names. It also uses sophisticated path planning — aided by its three sensor-imbued toy cubes — to maneuver environments and avoid falling off tables. Most of these computations are not happening on the robot’s internal hardware, which keeps it light and relatively durable. Instead, Cozmo connects to a iOS or Android app, which communicates with Anki’s servers where more of heavier lifting is taken care of.
As for what you actually do with Cozmo, the activities vary. You can play a number of games with the robot using the three cubes. Those include a Whac-A-Mole game and your standard keep-away, where Cozmo tries to snatch a cube from your hand before you can pull it back. This is all coordinated through the mobile app, which uses a gamification system to let you unlock more skills for Cozmo by completing one of three daily goals. Those can include simple things like letting Cozmo free roam on your coffee table for 10 minutes. Others give you specific scenarios to create, like beating Cozmo at a game of "tap the cube" after reaching a 4-4 tie. One of the most fun features the app allows is a remote-control mode, where you can see through Cozmo's camera.
Xtrem Bot Spy Bot
Go undercover with the Spy Bot. Spy Bot can be programmed to follow up to 50 consecutive actions using the infrared remote controller, including a dance mode. Spy Bot can also record and repeat any sounds it hears – perfect for covert operations. Featuring LED eyes, robot sounds and articulated arms.
Robo Chameleon
This robotic chameleon has all of the brilliant skills of a chameleon packed into the body of a robot… that also looks like a chameleon. For starters, the Robo Chameleon has ridges on its back and head that use LED lights to change colour. It also has some crazy chameleon eyes that roll around when it moves, not to mention a wagging tail! And, best of all, it has an extendable tongue that uses magnets to snatch food off the floor!
This robotic chameleon toy is controlled by a remote control that lets you move it around and, of course, trigger that tongue! This is excellent for dexterity training, and it’s a whole lot of fun, too! It comes with little magnetic food disks that you can gobble up. So, for a toy that can help develop the skills for judging distance and angles while making playtime just plain amazing, you need the Robo Chameleon!
Wowwee MiP
MiP has an inquisitive and responsive personality communicated through motion, sounds, and RGB LED eyes. With his unique dual-wheel balancing, MiP is able to navigate his surroundings, follow hand gestures, and follow objects around. Watch MiP balance multiple objects while moving or standing still! Modes include roam, stack and dance. Free app available from Apple/Android Store for extra play value.
Clementoni Science Museum Robomaker
With 1 cybernetic brain, 3 electric motors, 2 IR sensors, 1 touch sensor, 1 speaker and more than 250 interchangeable components, your child will be able to build 5 robots of increasing complexity that can be programmed manually or via the APP. They can then be made to follow routes. With the X1-Explorer, your child can program movement, speed and sound effects. With the X2-Spider, they can simulate the behaviour of prey or predator. With the X3-Sumobot, they can carry out line-following activities. With the X4-Guardian, they can sweep an area looking for intruders. Finally, with the X5-Droid, they can pick up objects and arrange them according to colour! The infra-red sensors allow the robots to identify objects around them and the touch sensor recognises when the robot has picked them up. Block coding is essential to learning the basics of programming. With the exclusive app, you can program the robots from a tablet or smartphone while you learn. In "control" mode, you can make the robots move around in real time.
Thames and Kosmos Robotics Workshop
Build and program robots with this complete robotics engineering system. Using sensors, motors, a core controller, and hundreds of snap-together building pieces, you can follow the instructions to assemble ten different robots. The versatile parts also allow you to make robots according to your own designs.
This fun robotics curriculum starts out with instructions for building simple robots, teaching you how the sensors can be used to control the robots. Build an ultrasound robot that can avoid obstacles, a drawing robot, and a touch sensor robot. Move on to more complex robots that have multiple functions, such as a ball-shooting robot, a crawling robot, and a grabbing robot. Build a robotic arm that can pick up objects, a butler robot, a robot that will turn toward a light source, and a cool scorpion robot.
This fun robotics curriculum starts out with instructions for building simple robots, teaching you how the sensors can be used to control the robots. Build an ultrasound robot that can avoid obstacles, a drawing robot, and a touch sensor robot. Move on to more complex robots that have multiple functions, such as a ball-shooting robot, a crawling robot, and a grabbing robot. Build a robotic arm that can pick up objects, a butler robot, a robot that will turn toward a light source, and a cool scorpion robot.
After you have mastered all of the robotic models in the instructions, you will have the tools and knowledge you need to go on and build and program your own amazing robotic creations. The robots can be controlled directly in realtime and programmed to perform series of commands using an easy-to-use, free downloadable app on iOS or Android® tablets and Windows PCs. The mobile app wirelessly connects to the core controller using a Bluetooth low energy connection. The PC app connects to the core controller via a USB cable. The app uses the open source visual block programming library Google Blockly to make coding fast and easy to understand.
A 64-page, full-color manual features step-by-step illustrated building instructions and instructions explaining how to program and operate all of the robot models.
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