Introduction

Goals

RoboMind learning activities aim at introducing kids to Computational Thinking trough programming a virtual robot.

What is ROBO?

ROBO is a very simple educational programming language that will familiarize you with the basics of computer science. You will also be introduced into popular programming techniques, and you will gain an insight into areas such as robotics and artificial intelligence. These skills will be gained by creating programs for a robot.

The Robot

The robot is capable of performing several actions. It can drive, look around, move items and paint. This can all be done in different environments that are made up of blocks.

The ROBO programming language

ROBO is designed in such a way that you can start exploring and programming right away. A special language has been written that consists of a concise set of rules and is aimed at programming a robot. As a result there are a lot of opportunities to create your own programs and experience the principles that lay at the heart of most other programming languages.

To give you an impression of a program in ROBO, below is a script which will program the robot to paint a square.

# Draw a square
paintWhite()
repeat(4)
{
    forward(2)
    right()
}
stopPainting()

The language consists of a number of basic instructions to control the robot, repetition loops, conditional if...then...else statements, the possibility to define instructions yourself by creating procedures. Procedures are allowed to be defined recursively.