Thymio II is an

educational Education is a purposeful activity directed at achieving certain aims, such as transmitting knowledge or fostering skills and character traits. These aims may include the development of understanding, rationality, kindness, and honesty. Vari ...

robot in the 100 Euros price range. The robot was developed at the EPFL in collaboration with

ECAL ECAL or ECal may refer to: *Eastern California, a region defined as being east of the Sierra Nevada mountain range * ECAL Pty Ltd, a SaaS Technology Company *École cantonale d'art de Lausanne The École cantonale d'art de Lausanne (ECAL) is a u ...

, both in Lausanne, Switzerland. A purely-visual programming language was developed at

ETH Zurich (colloquially) , former_name = eidgenössische polytechnische Schule , image = ETHZ.JPG , image_size = , established = , type = Public , budget = CHF 1.896 billion (2021) , rector = Günther Dissertori , president = Joël Mesot , ac ...

. All components, both hardware and software, are open source. The main features of the robot are a large number of

sensors A sensor is a device that produces an output signal for the purpose of sensing a physical phenomenon. In the broadest definition, a sensor is a device, module, machine, or subsystem that detects events or changes in its environment and sends ...

and

actuators An actuator is a component of a machine that is responsible for moving and controlling a mechanism or system, for example by opening a valve. In simple terms, it is a "mover". An actuator requires a control device (controlled by control signal) an ...

, educational interactivity based on light and touch, and a programming environment featuring graphical and text programming. Thymio has over 20 sensors and 40 lights and integrates with third party languages such as MIT's Scratch. One of the unique features of these robots is its design, production, and commercialization by a full open-source and non-profit chain of actors. This very alternative approach has been justified by the educational goal of the project. The design has been mainly made by universities (EPFL, écal and ETHZ) within research programs (NCCR Robotics). Mechanics, electronics and software are open source. The company producing Thymio, called Mobsya is a non-profit organization. Many articles have been written about how to teach with Thymio in the classroom including the article, "Classroom robotics: Motivating independent learning and discovery" on Robohub. Research and new Thymio projects are constantly being done as noted by IEEE. In 2020 Thymio's pedagogical design was evaluated by Education Alliance Finland. In the evaluation, a group of teacher-evaluators in Switzerland assessed Thymio's curriculum alignment, pedagogy, and usability through using a science-based product evaluation method, developed by Education Alliance Finland and Finnish educational researchers. The product evaluation was funded by Stiftung Mercator and as an outcome of the evaluation, Thymio was granted a pedagogical quality certification. The robot is in production and distributors of Thymio include TechyKids.com.

Simulation

simulation A simulation is the imitation of the operation of a real-world process or system over time. Simulations require the use of Conceptual model, models; the model represents the key characteristics or behaviors of the selected system or proc ...

model of the Thymio II compatible wit
Aseba Studio
is available in

Webots Webots is a free and open-source 3D robot simulator used in industry, education and research. The Webots project started in 1996, initially developed by Dr. Olivier Michel at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology ( EPFL) in Lausanne, Switzer ...

and a 3D interactive model of the robot can be foun
here

Contests

Since August 18, 2017, the Thymio II robot is used in various international online contest on Robotbenchmark.

References

{{Reflist, 30em Robots