Modular Robotic Playware

There is an open debate on whether today’s consumer driven economy is constantly encouraging us to buy and not to build. Plagiarism and copyright policies can potentially serve as mental barricades that dry out our curiosity, creativity and collaboration [1, 2]. In this work we, at Center for Playware, seek to revitalize and quench our users thirst for knowledge within the domain of robotics. We believe that, given the right tools, anyone can become a robot designer. As a result we have developed Fable a modular robot designed for education that can help motivate users towards social interaction while building and playing with robots. Our approach uses easy to assemble units that allow users to build a robot in a matter of seconds. Fable’s design encloses topics in modular robotics within the Danish educational sector. Fable is a heterogeneous chain based user-reconfigurable robot, that is based on two types of modules: passive and active. Passive modules give the system shape and structure, while active modules are able to interact with the environment. Fable’s library of modules currently consists of a 2 DOF Joint Module, a Wheel Module a Sensor Module and a set of 11 different Passive Modules. The system also has a Dongle, used to enable PCs to communicate wirelessly with active modules. Users can choose the communication channel by pressing the button on the Dongle, where each radio channel is color coded. Fable uses scaffolding based progression by allowing unexperienced users to program through a graphical user interface based on Google’s "Blockly" and later progress to Python programming. The system was tested with more than 500 students in various settings including: public schools, after-school clubs and research labs. We then used this knowledge to improve our design and built a robot that fits the requirements of the Danish educational system. In autumn 2016 Fable will be available to public schools in Denmark.