The Meebot is a robot aimed at kids. You can buy it from Apple stores for £109.95. It comes in kit form, which means you have to build it like LEGO. Except that instead of paper instructions you download the app which shows an animated 3D model of the build which you can turn and zoom in to – if only LEGO did this…
Once complete, which takes a couple of hours (quicker if your kids aren’t helping), you can connect to it via Bluetooth and start controlling it.
The pre-set moves are great: it can do the ‘crazy dance’ and even the ‘man flag’ where it balances on one arm.
The idea, of course, is that kids have a lot of fun building and playing with it, but then learn to program it to move themselves. They can do this using a graphical block interface, but can also see the code itself.
They can even dismantle the kit and build their own version of the robot, connecting the six servo motors in whatever combination they like.
Launching in August 2017, Lego Boost is a new range of robots which, instead of being based on the Technics bricks uses the standard bricks all kids (and adults) are familiar with.
Like Lego Creator sets, instructions are supplied for building various different models (one of which looks a lot like Johnny Five from Short Circuit) from the 843 pieces, and there are three ‘’Boost” bricks which make the robot move.
