A universal graphical environment for programming educational robots

Challenge

All manufacturers of educational robots popular on the market offer their own robot programming environments, but these environments are dedicated to a given type and version of the hardware platform and do not offer unification of the language and programming environment even within products of one product line.

The challenge of the project was to create a universal graphical, intuitive programming environment, which is an important element in the dissemination of learning programming with the use of robots, significantly facilitating or even enabling an effective teaching process in school conditions.

Solution

In cooperation with RoboApp, we have developed a universal graphical programming environment for educational robots, providing a user-friendly drag-and-drop interface and programming language that allows you to program robots based on various hardware platforms without knowing complex syntax and semantics. By design, all program elements (e.g. loops, conditional instructions) and robot objects (sensors, actuators) are available in the form of graphical representation. The set of available controls depends on the specific hardware platform. The simplicity of the language and environment allows for effective programming of robots without knowledge of the technical complexities associated with a given robotic platform and without the need to understand advanced concepts related to the specifics of real-time control. The environment enables programming educational robots from the most popular hardware platforms, including LEGO (WeDo and EV3) and mBot series robots.

Business effect

RoboApp, thanks to cooperation with Innokrea, has created a modern educational product intended for implementation in schools and educational institutions around the world.

The developed integration solution allowed, among others, to build increased involvement of users of this product. The innovative method created includes interactive and engaging learning experiences that can capture students’ attention and keep them engaged in robotics. This ultimately leads to better understanding and consolidation of information.

Technology that connects many different robotic platforms also allows for personalized learning paths that take into account individual students’ strengths, weaknesses and learning styles. This allows students to progress at their own pace, ensuring more effective learning outcomes in robotics and programming.