Robots For Kids

1. A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
2. A robot must obey any orders given to it by human beings, except for the circumstances when such orders would conflict with the First Law.
3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.

- The Three Laws of Robotics by Isaac Asimov

Since the history of robots and science fiction, the above three laws have been the ground rules for each and every robot's archetype and its interaction with humans and the environment. A robot, according to the Robot Institute of America, is a reprogrammable, multifunctional manipulator designed to move material, parts, tools, or specialized devices through various programmed motions for the performance of a variety of tasks. This vaguely presents an idea of what a robot is and what exactly it does. Advantages of robotics are automation of wide number of tasks, which otherwise would have required manual intervention. This, however, led to an increase in unemployment; nevertheless made many lives easy. The vast ingenious possibilities in robotics has opened up a wide range of opportunities to customize and engineer machines which have the ability to 'behave' and 'think' like us (thanks to Artificial Intelligence).

And as expected, such an exciting domain has not left the kids unaffected with its charm. Any robot, given its complex circuitry and extensive design, requires a fairly steep assembling cost. But there are a number of simple robots for kids and robot toys which won't burn a deep hole in the pocket; and would provide complete entertainment value for kids.

How to Build a Robot for Kids

Designing
The best thing about robots (especially robots for kids) is that they can be built without any restrictions in design parameters, and this provides immense satisfaction in building one from scratch. There are a couple of things that you should keep in mind before delving into any kind of projects, including simple robots for kids. Firstly, you have to decide what kind of robot you want to make. Would it be airborne or trod the uneven surface of your garden? After deciding that, you have to take a look into six basic aspects for building your robot - sensing, movement, manipulation, energy, intelligence, and appearance. Charting out the blueprint of your robot would be fairly beneficial. That said, try to seek some assistance from adults who have a sound knowhow about robotics and could help you in building your mean dream machine.

Materializing
Imagine this scenario - you have the clear mental blueprint of how your robot should be and function, but when you try to materialize your ideas, you are completely baffled by the technicalities. Now, there is nothing to worry about because once you are determined to make one robot for yourself, there is no stopping you from achieving your dreams. The ground rule is to be patient and do some serious research on various printed circuit boards and integrated circuits which could be included in your project. Also, companies like Lego sell robotics kits for kids (Lego Mindstorms) which you might like to invest in as they might come in handy later. Anyway, the rudimentary body structure of the robot should consist of a muscle system to ambulate the 'arms', a power source to allow the movement of the 'muscles', a brain system or the Artificial Intelligence which controls the 'behavior' of the robot.

Every joint of a robot's 'arm' should have three-degrees of freedom or the capability to move in six odd directions - up/down, left/right and forward/backward. This would be sufficient for basic mechanical tacks.

The Finishing Touch
Now your complete structure has been built and is working without any glitches. You might find it exhilarating. But wait, it is time for the coup de grâce! Now, be a sport and try embellishing the body with suave designs and graphics, not to mention, by adding your favorite superhero sticker! There you go! Your mean dream machine is ready and geared up to face any challenges, come as they may.

It's a common perception that robots are hi-tech and involve a lot of technical complexities. On the other hand, the plummeting prices of electronics and technical hardware have paved way for various cheap and effective methods for geeky kids to experiment and built their own robots without compromising on the quality.