There are many ways for people to get into robotics, whether from an early age at school or late in life as a hobbyist, and as such there is a fantastic range of kits out there to suit all ages, budgets and skill levels which we will explore in this blog. There are also numerous resources available online for the budding roboticist with a range of tutorials such as the Active Robots Forum and the Society of Robots. Since inception, robotics teaching at schools has developed from the boring early roamer robot, to the time consuming Lego Mindstorms and now to the more advanced and easier to programme breed of robots for the next generation of interactive robotics teaching. roamer robot lego mindstorms Now, with the development of low-cost, easy to use robot kits anyone can get involved in the exciting field of robotics with any of the kits below.

parallax activity botActivityBot

Firstly, the ActivityBot, a classic kit from Parallax suitable for beginners and first-time robot builders as well as for workshops and teaching in schools. Its a flexible kit which has a range of options to expand and add off-the-shelf components, sensors and upgrade kits so you can fully customise your 'bot  when you progress and advance your skills.

  seeedstudio shield botShield Bot

New from SeeedStudio is the Shield Bot kit which comes pre-assembled and is incredible value at less than £60.  With its plug and play usability all you need to do is connect the battery and you can be up and running within minutes. Due to being Arduino based you have access to the extensive Arduino community for endless expansion and future projects.

active robots surveyor robotSurveyor Robot

One of our own brand products, the Surveyor robot makes use of cutting edge space exploration technical as seen on the Mars Rover. The surveyor robot can be controlled by Laptop, PC, Phone or Tablet device with live video feed from the front mounted onboard camera. It offers the amazingly flexible Linkia control board that can be used by total novices as a first experience of robotics, a powerful research platform with full access to the onboard controllers and kernel, or anything in between. rover GUI video feed

seeedstudio 4wd chassis kit4WD ATV Robot Chassis Kit

This 4WD ATV robot chassis kit is suitable for plug and play, quick interchange usage and is perfect for applications where you want to be able to rapidly build, test, use and then disassemble kits over and over such as for school teaching and robot competitions. Its 4WD construction means that it is great for both indoor and outdoor use aswell as for obstacle courses.

TurtleBot2TurtleBot 2

One for the aspiring user, TurtleBot2 runs on the standard Robot Operating System (ROS) programme which is becoming increasingly popular in the robotics world as a common programming language. TurtleBot2 is a state of the art open-source robotics platform with advanced capabilities like mapping and navigation.

  Nao humanoid robotsNAO Humanoid Robot

The NAO Humanoid Robot is probably the most popular robot since the LEGO Mindstorms were released and it's not hard to see why. With specialist programs for special needs such as Autism and deliverable curriculum content for teachers, NAO is a great robot for education. It's also the official robot for the RoboCup league and is in use in numerous Universities for advanced research. For more information about getting into robotics, robotics kits for schools, workshops and STEM teaching get in contact with one of our team on 01761 234 328, via email on sales@active-robots.com or through our online community forum.