Blockly: A visual coding language perfect for learning Robotics specifically for Age groups of 5 and more.
Robot vs. Robotics
Let's start with the explanation of the word Robot. The word Robot is defined from Czech word ‘Robota’ which means forced labor. Robot is a device which is automatic in nature and performs its function to save human effort. On the other hand, the term Robotics has a very deep meaning. It is the art of developing a robot using knowledge areas of mechanical, electrical, electronics and computer science. How a robot is going to perform is based on “How it is programmed?” The field of computer science covers programming of the robot and Blockly is one of the ways to interact with robots for their functioning.
What is Blocky?
Blockly is an open source, visual method to build the code for performing a task. It is a ready-made user interface for creating a visual language code and further gives the flexibility to export the code in various other languages such as JavaScript, python, PHP and many more. It is highly capable of handling complex component movements with relative ease such as programming a self balancing robot.
Blockly is Everywhere.
Due to its open source nature and extensible API feature, it is a widely adopted tool among various developers in the field of robotics and automation. Here is list of few organization those uses Blockly
How is it useful for Students?
Blockly gives the freedom to students to code the robot with full ease. In the actual context, with just a few drag and drop of blocks, the whole code is ready and the robot is ready to perform. The students are not required to worry about the syntax of the code. The predefined blocks take care of syntax on their own behind the scenes. The whole code works just like a flow chart which is very easy to implement with logical sense. Even with common sense, the students are able to troubleshoot the issues.
Try Blockly for Free?
Here are a few links listed where you can try blocky on your own. The first one is Google blockly which is the prime developer of Blockly. Second link is for programming a virtual robot by Vex Robotics. After making a code, the robot can be seen moving in a virtual environment. The third link gives you options to install an app either on IOS or Android Systemes with flexibility to choose mobile/tablet/ipad device. Tello EDU app can be used to program a drone (quadcopter) in a virtual area even if you don’t have a physical drone. The fourth link is for Scratch which is another tool based on blockly. It is available free of cost.
Gurpreet Singh
May 22, 2022
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