ROBOTS and the classroom are not two concepts you might associate with each other. While Lego’s Mindstorms has done much to introduce robotics to children, the cost limits its use as an educational tool.


That’s where the ‘eBots’ from robotics startup EdgeBotix come in. They are affordable robots which can work with any programming language and integrate any sensor, claimed its founder and chief executive officer Abishek Gupta.


“The robots available for education are very expensive – for example, the Amigobot is about US$3,000,” Abishek told Digital News Asia (DNA) in Singapore.


“We wanted to breach that barrier, making [robotics] more accessible for education,” he added.


Students are fascinated by robots. Being able to program and control a robot with an everyday device like a smartphone would help drive interest, and allow learning via practical examples, he declared.


EdgeBotix is currently targeting engineering colleges, which brings about its own challenges.


“Bringing the concept of robotics in education to universities has been the greatest challenge so far,” Abhishek said.


“The conventional way of teaching is through a textbook, and people are reluctant to embrace a new interactive tool to learn.


“But once they start using it, they realise how it helps – it’s just a challenge of changing mindsets from book knowledge to applying it through an interactive tool,” he added.