Summary
Have you ever considered introducing robotics to your child in the same way they might be enrolled in soccer or piano lessons? Jared Schrieber, founder of Revolution Robotics, certainly has. His nonprofit is dedicated to making robotics kits accessible to all communities, envisioning a world where there are just as many elementary and high school robotics teams as basketball or football teams.
The focus of Revolution Robotics is on using robotics as a tool to engage children in STEM learning and develop important life skills. The company's kit is designed to be used in teams, but individuals can buy the kit and still be part of a community. It uses guided instructions for building and programming robots and costs $249 USD or €249 euro. The kit is similar to Lego Mindstorms.
The company also offers an app that allows kids to build and control their own robots. They can assign their programs to buttons on the remote control and take on weekly challenges in the app. The goal is to teach kids skills that they can creatively apply to solve problems. Robotics offers a unique opportunity to teach kids how to code, allowing them to control something physical and interact with the environment around them.
Revolution Robotics aims to make robotics education accessible for every school, household, and child. Parents, teachers, and mentors can lead groups of children in learning robotics skills, and individuals and companies can sponsor programs at local community centers, schools, and boys and girls clubs to provide opportunities for kids to learn about robotics.
The company's vision is to provide an onboarding, not an end goal, to STEM and robotics. As such, their app includes features like computer vision, convolutional neural networks, and Lidar, typically advanced features in artificial intelligence. The age range for children to engage with the company's kit is between eight and thirteen years old, although children as young as five or six can enjoy using it with enthusiastic parents' support.
Revolution Robotics' kit includes hundreds of parts, and the company used Kickstarter to fund the project. The Kickstarter campaign allowed them to launch a minimum viable product that early adopters could test and provide feedback on before refining and releasing it on a larger scale. The company marketed their product through online forums and communities where Raspberry Pi enthusiasts and STEM educators typically interacted.
Dupont is a recent partner that has positively impacted Revolution Robotics' mission. 3D printing is more expensive per part than injection molding, but the ability to iterate and modify designs is invaluable in the prototyping process. 3D printing allows for physical parts to be tested and put together to realize design flaws and other ways to use the parts. The hope of the company is to give kids an onboarding path to learning how to code and a reason to code by providing a physical, tangible object for them to control.
Overall, Revolution Robotics is on a mission to make robotics education and competition thrive by designing affordable robotics kits and curricula. With the help of engineering talent, the company's goal is to make organized robotics teams as common as basketball teams in schools and after-school programs. The benefits of organized robotics for children include developing engineering, communication, teamwork, and problem-solving skills.
