Ever since we started promoting our FASTBot, we get questions about Lego robotics from general public, parents, schools and even from colleges asking us to compare our bot with the Lego robotics blocks.
Here, we give a total picture on the robotic tools available from Lego.
Basically Lego robotics building blocks are developed as the extension of other building blocks. Lego blocks became very popular because of advantages like easy handling, convenient in building something very comfortably in a cheerful place where parents or teachers can leave kids to experiment with these building blocks. Availability of these blocks in attractive colors really encourages the kids to keep working with the blocks for any interaction.
Apart from this, interested kids can easily try out their ideas without much difficulty, and start seeing good results that motivate them to keep working on the blocks more time. All this make schools and patents very happy for giving this initiation to the kids. Success rate of these Lego block interactions is usually high and kids really start working with Lego tools for more time and for the motivated kids, these Lego tools can teach a lot by the way of robotics without any doubt.
Then the kids keep growing and get into higher classes and then their continued workings with Lego blocks becomes questionable. Even though, Lego supports kids with advanced robotics tools, their acquired knowledge out of these tools slowly get irrelevant to the actual real time situations.
Yes, Lego gives a quick start to anyone in robotics. They also get familiar with a programming language and get first hand feel in programming too. This should give them a confidence to prepare them for more of robotics in the coming days. When the kids start taking their knowledge into real life situations with real time elements, they find their knowledge and understanding becoming helpless to handle actual problems. Anybody can easily understand the knowledge acquired in lab or home environment is not adequate to manage real life interactions where kids need to manage bigger, complicated and uncertain elements demanding more of engineering and technology than before.
Many simple operations successfully implemented in the labs are not possible in real life conditions where majority of design elements come in different forms and shapes along with new kinds of interactions. Kids may find the Lego blocks are not at all usable in any application which force them get struck on their tracks.
But it is about our understanding on the Lego robotics and their utility in our education. When we plan to get the kids interested in robotics during initial schooling, Lego has an important role to play. Lego makes their life, during this period, very much purposeful and can motivate them to take robotics as one of the career option. Apart from this, kids learn to focus their attention on some engineering activity in a comfortable environment under teachers or parents watchful eyes to upgrade themselves with robotics related introductory information.
School kids, studying up to eighth standard (of Indian schools) are the right learning audience for the Lego tools and here they can play a very active role in introducing many engineering concepts to the school going youngsters. This is how, Lego can substantiate school education with suitable outputs enabling the students get prepared for the professional education in the later years of their study.
Already, in US, college staff members found this and they pointed out how Lego based robotics becomes inadequate to take up college level robotics activities.
So, students of higher secondary schools require more realistic knowledge to get them capable to manage college education without much stress. For this phase of education, professional robotic trainers like FASTBot becomes an useful tool to equip the students with relevant real life knowledge on robotics. For the example, FASTBot comes with industry compatible sensing elements, industry usable software tools and more design elements which can be applied to real life solutions. Whatever inputs students acquire with this kind of bot becomes handy for them when they enhance their knowledge in college learning. Above all, this field proven bot can educate the students distinguish the mediocre results from the required exact responses and then enable them produce the required outputs. As you know, robots punish students for their every wrong efforts till they get ready to react with right inputs, only professionally engineered bots can educate them the differences in the students’ efforts and guide them to the professional results in less time. All these inputs collectively help the students take up their engineering in the college with ease and confidence.
It is now clear that Lego robotic building blocks are very much useful in kindling an interest in the minds of kids studying up to eight standard for the robotics and enabling them to start learning on robotics without getting their hands dirty. When the kids grow up, they need the professional robotic trainers to create a working platform in their minds. These trainers can educate the students on many real life elements required to take up robotics on a serious level from their college studies onwards. In fact, these trainers become a bridge connecting students with more engineering and help them to make mark in college education and their career.