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The mBot is a simple, programmable educational robot built on the Arduino platform.
"The mBot is an excellent choice if your kids are already doing Lego robotics at school and want a change of pace or if you're seeking a kit that supplies a much broader base of understanding in mechatronics — provided you don't mind a slightly steeper learning curve and purchasing some add-on components" according to GearLab review.
Specs
Pros
Pro Scratch-like programming
You can program this robot using the dedicated mBlock IDE, built on the basis of a long-known Scratch IDE developed at the MIT specifically to teach kids to program, this is by far the simplest and user-friendly programming environment you can find. The IDE uses a variety of simple blocks that you can interconnect to create some amazing programs and even games. All the programming blocks are well-documented and there are literally tons of tutorials and examples available online.
Pro A large variety of integrated hardware
You can perform a wide variety of exercises with this robot thanks the generous amount of hardware the mBot comes with. Even in its base configuration, the mBot offers a remarkable range of equipment that you can control and program. You can program both of its driving wheels, led strip, IR transceiver, proximity sensor, an optical sensor as well as some of the robot's individual LEDs. For example, you can program it to search for objects on the floor while following a line, and signal an LED once the object is found.
Pro Comes with a remote
You can actually test the robot's functionality with an IR remote that comes with the mBot. Using the remote, you can switch the robot between the three pre-set programs - manual control, line follower, and obstacle avoider. Additionally, the remote can be used to control the speed of the robot.