Five Amazing Educational robot kits for kids

LEGO Mindstorms NXT 2.0 (8547)

Amazon Price: $259.89 (as of 02/23/2012)

While pricey, what kid does not want one of these? I'd recommend it for kids of age 10+ to 80 years of age. With ultrasound ranging systems, colour detection and sound detection this can be used to build a robot that would find its way around a floor, at the centre of the kit a programmable computer brick.

Each motor has rotation sensing which can be used to gauge the position of an arm or the speed of wheels, or to build their own joystick with feedback to control another robot.

Whatever they will do with it, you can guarantee one thing, The NXT will not disappoint.

OWI Robotic Arm Edge

Amazon Price: $32.00 (as of 02/23/2012)

Again - like the other OWI Gear, this requires construction which will be great fun. You can then use the controller to move the 5 motors controlling the different joints and operate the gripper. Ann additional kit (see below) adds USB connectivity so it can be controlled from a PC, or for the more advanced robot builder, they may be able to substitute the 5 switch controller with the microcontroller board of their choice.

Younger children interested in robot can play with and assemble this, but will require more supervision as there are small parts and some fairly difficult assemblies, as well as some cutting of plastic parts from sprue's and squaring up their edges.

Snap Circuits RC Rover

Amazon Price: $39.98 (as of 02/23/2012)

This robot hands over its electronic design to a child. It is simple to put together, as well as bright and inspirational. While the robots kit says 8-13 years, I'd rather read that as 8 to 80+ years, as many Dads will want one too!

All the parts go together using a simple snap on mechanism which holds them in place, without needing soldering. The system is similar to clothing snaps, requiring a little force to push together and remove.

In the box are components to make a number of projects using the rovers motors, an LED light and buzzer that can make different tones. Capacitors and resistors can be used together to make timing circuits. The remote control is a proper wireless one (not corded), and the kit uses standard batteries to power it (not included).

The manual beautifully explains each of the parts in easy to understand detail, with illustrations and clear diagrams. There are "How it works" sections on the radio control system, motors and gears, batteries so the child would be well on their way to building or designing their own Electro-mechanical rc devices.

There are specific upgrade packs from Elenco (the manufacturer) for this robot too, giving it more capabilities.

While it simply makes up a remote control robot floor rover, it can be combined with some sensors and parts from other snap circuits sets to make complex behaviour allowing for a far more interesting robot. However, it does uses different voltages from other kits, so care and experience is required before linking this up with the other kits. Elenco have a section of the manual showing some combinations that could be made from these.

Sparkfun Starter Kit for Arduino - Flex

Amazon Price: $59.95 (as of 02/23/2012)

The Arduino is currently taking the hobbyist electronic and robotics groups by storm. it is an amazing little microcontroller, which is easily programmed from Windows, Linux and Mac via an included USB cable. This kit gives you a microcontroller to program with, starting from a basic LED flashing, through to using some of the cool sensors and actuators packed in with it.
The kit includes a chunk of solderless breadboard and jumper cables - no soldering is at all necessary to enjoy this.

Items included are:

• An Arduino UNO


• A USB cable


• Miniature solderless breadboard


• Male to Male Jumper Wires


• A bunch of touch, stretch, light and temperature sensors.


• A bag of coloured LED's, including Tri-colored ones


• A bunch of different valued resistors.


• A noisy buzzer - sure to be a favourite.