Topobo Constructable Kinetic Robot Toy
Writing by Evan Ackerman on Monday, 23 of March , 2009 at 4:01 am
It’s fairly common to program toy and hobby robots through kinetic memory; that is, by moving them and recording the motion for them to reproduce. You may not be able to program very sophisticated or detailed motions this way, but it’s an intuitive system that’s easy to grasp. This is one of the principles behind Topobo, an educational robot developed through the MIT Media lab. But there are a couple twists… First of all, Topobo includes a controller that lets you modify the motions you record. And secondly, Tobopo is constructable (and deconstructable), just like (and I hate to make this comparison) LEGOs:
Designed for children, Tobopo is simple to understand in an immediate and hands-on sort of way, and has apparently been proven to teach “advanced physics concepts” to 5 year olds. From the sound of things, Topopo was more of a Ph.D thesis project than an actual commercial product, but the prototype kits are now on sale (while they last) from about $500 for the basic kit all the way up to $5000 for the 1,000 piece classroom set.
[ Topobo ] VIA [ Trendhunter ]
Comments (3)
Category: Toys,Transforming
- Add this post to
- Del.icio.us -
- Digg
Comment by MindFlex Geek
Made Friday, 13 of November , 2009 at 5:51 pm
So exciting toy . My daughter love wooden toy
Comment by quantum_flux
Made Tuesday, 19 of October , 2010 at 12:39 am
Nice way to calibrate the controls, wow!
Comment by How To Facebook
Made Tuesday, 17 of January , 2012 at 5:32 am
A very interesting read, thanks for that. If you ever write a follow-up, i’ll be sure to read it!
