Learning robotics: a review

Abstract

Purpose of Review: With the growing interest for STEM/STEAM, new robotic platforms are being created with different characteristics, extras and options. There are so many diverse solutions, that it is difficult for a teacher/student to choose the ideal one. This paper intends to provide an analysis to the most common robotic platforms existent on the market. The same is happening regarding robotic events all around the world, with objectives so distinctive, and with complexity from easy to very difficult. This paper also describes some of those events which occur in many countries. Recent Findings: As the literature is showing, there has been a visible effort from schools and educators to teach robotics from very young ages, not only because robotics is the future, but also as a tool to teach STEM/STEAM areas. But as time progresses, the options for the right platforms also evolves making difficult to choose among them. Some authors opt to first choose a robotic platform and carry on from there. Others choose first a development environment and then look for which robots can be programmed from it. Summary: An actual review on learning robotics is here presented, firstly showing some literature background on history and trends of robotic platforms used in education in general, the different development environments for robotics and finishing on competitions and events. A comprehensive characterization list of robotic platforms along with robotic competitions and events is also shown.