TiddlyBot is a first major new product based on Raspberry Pi with a design able to combine electronics and programming in order to engage children and adults in improving the creativity and learn about technology, construction, and software.
The idea of a robot controlled by Raspberry Pi has become reality after a workshop where the designers realize that playing with robots is an invaluable resource to learn programming and other useful skills from Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math.
Why RPi? Because the fruit-named single board computer has enough power to control the movement of the robot, support the learning of Python and Javascript, it can read the multi-colored light sensor output, and it’s smart enough to follow a line or draw a line.
The TiddlyBot can be programmed using a custom Blockly Interface, which is good enough to help teach programming. If directly the robot can be controlled using the custom interface, using a smartphone, a tablet, or a PC the robot can be controlled remotely.
More than that, the platform has support for additional hardware. For example, the robot host 4 servos and an RGB led, and additionally can be added additional hardware such as an ultrasonic sensor using the GPIO pins of the Pi.