Table 1.
Most widespread mobile educational platforms: target group, cost and technology.
| Bot Name | Level of Education | Appro-ximate Cost (€) | Open Source HW/SW | Sensors | Actuators/ Kinematic Model |
ROS | Controller/CPU | Programming Tools | Data Communication | Ref |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bee-bot /Colby | Kindergarten/Elementary | 65 | NO/NO | Bs | ?/DD | NO | ? | Buttons | NO | [26,27] |
| mBot | Elementary/ secondary |
120 | NO/YES | B, UDS, LF, LS, IR | DC gear motor plastic, RGB LEDs, buzzer/DD | NO | ATmega328/ motor driver | Block-based/ Arduino IDE | BT | [44] |
| Thymio II | Elementary/ secondary |
170 | YES/YES | Bs, IR, LF, Th, Acc, Mic | DC gear motor plastic, LEDs, Loud speaker/ DD | NO | PIC24FJ128GB/ motor driver |
Block/Visual /text based (Aseba) | 2.4 GHz, protocol 802.15.4 | [28,29] |
| Edison | Elementary/ secondary |
60 | NO/NO | Bs, IR, LS, LF, Mic, OE | DC gear motor, LEDs, buzzer/DD | NO | Freescale 8-bit MC9S08PA16 |
Block-based/ Scratch/EdPy |
IR | [46] |
| Scribbler 3 | Elementary/ secondary | 200 | NO/NO | LS, LF, IR, OE | DC gear motor, LEDs/DD | NO | Propeller P8X32A | Block-based programming | USB | [30] |
| LEGO EV3 | secondary | 500 | NO/NO | TS, CS, GS, UDS | Compact Gear motors/DD | NO | ARM9 | EV3 icon-based software | BT, Wi-Fi |
[32] |
| AlphaBot2 | secondary | 90–125 | YES/YES | UDS, IR, LF, Camera* | N20 micro gear motor, RGB LEDs/DD | NO | Arduino or Raspberry Pi zero or BBC micro:bit | Arduino IDE or Python | BT, IR | [47] |
| ActivityBot | secondary | 200 | NO/NO | UDS, LS, TS, IR, OE | High speed 360o servos/DD | NO | Propeller P8X32A | Block-based graphical/C | USB | [30] |
| Epuck 2 | Secondary/ higher | 1200 | YES/YES | IR, acc, gyro, mic, camera, ToF | Stepper motors, LEDs, Loud-seaker/DD | YES | STM32F4 ARM Cortex M4 | Free C compiler | BT | [33,34] |
| Robobo | Secondary/ higher | 450 | NO/YES | Camera, acc, gyro, GPS, magn, IR, LS | DC gear motor, LEDs/DD | YES | Smartphone + PIC32 (low-level control) | Scratch/ Python/ ROS |
Wi-Fi | [48,49,50] |
| EUROPA II | Secondary/ higher | 120 or 300** | YES/YES | UDS, IR, OE, Camera, LIDAR** | DC gear motor, robotic arm, LEDs/DD | YES | Raspberry Pi | Python/ROS/ OpenCV |
Wi-Fi | [51] |
| Turtlebot 3 (burger) | higher | 800 | YES/YES | Camera, LIDAR, acc, gyro, magn | DYNAMIXEL AX gear motor + driver/DD | YES | Raspberry Pi + OpenCR | Block-based/ ROS/Python |
Wi-Fi | [35,52] |
| Duckiebot | higher | 150 | YES/YES | Fish-eye camera for Raspberry Pi | DC gear motor/DD | YES | Raspberry Pi 2 | ROS programming in C/Python | Wi-Fi | [13,36] |
| Leo Rover | Research/ industry | 2500 | YES/YES | Fish-eye camera, wheel encoders | 4x DC gear motor | YES | Raspberry Pi + Core2 ROS (low level) | ROS Programming | Wi-Fi | [38] |
| Summit-XL | Industry | 15000 | YES/YES | 3D camera, Laser scanner + optional sensors | 4x DC gear motor/skid steering | YES | Intel processor/PC | ROS Programming | Wi-Fi | [39] |
?: Not documented, DD: Differential Drive, B (s): Button (s), UDS: Ultrasonic Distance Sensor, LF: Line Following sensor, LS: Light Sensor, IR: Infrared Proximity Sensor, TS: Touch sensor, CS: Color sensor, Acc: accelerometer, Mic: Microphone, OE: Optical Encoder, ToF: Time of Flight distance sensor, magn: magnetometer, BT: Bluetooth *: in RPi version, **: University Edition.