Curiosity indeed...

A look into the future...

More and more girls in Science and Technology showing exactly why tech is not just for boys...

Ssssssearch and Resssscue...

Interesting locomotion. Fantastic application.

Robotic Snake Rescue

Proof that all you need is inspiration...

Who needs expensive parts? Most of mine come from skips. Nice to see I'm not alone.

African boy builds robot...

Awesome.

The art of robotics

Sometimes, robots need only be there to provoke a response.

This latest installation at the Tate Modern's new underground space, shows smart interaction using kinect sensors and a huge industrial robot.

Scary, beautiful and fun.

First steps...

Learning to code should be taught from an early age, but it isn't. Instead, our current generation of youngsters are shown how to use software that will be gone by the time they graduate.

When we learn to cook, we don't do so by eating. When we learn to write, we don't do just by reading. Computers are a tool that dominates modern life and to ignore them in our curriculum is naive in the extreme. However, for those that have the get up and go, there are a number of ways to introduce programming to fresh faces, young or old.

Here are some of my favorites.

Processing, and it's cousin, the Arduino Development Platform)

Lego NXT and it's predecessor, the RCX.

Scratch (and its NXT link through Enchanting)

BlueJ, and Greenfoot

iTunesU

Codeacademy

Khan Academy

While we're on the subject of the undersea operations, I was researching projects recently for a group of youngsters to have a crack at, and this one really took my fancy. It will take a bit of research to see how I can replicate some of the pieces with UK suppliers, but it looks like a lot of fun.

www.seaperch.org

The wonderful site has detailed instructions and videos, and in depth sourcing information. There's something about water that really appeals to some children, a sense of adventure that might just have a touch more allure than bumping off walls (although I hope plans for bumping off each other's robots will be exciting enough for now...)

It strikes me as an ideal arduino control candidate too for future tinkering. Time to scour the skips for pvc piping and old noodles :-)

What lurks beneath

The presence of mines underneath the water has driven the training of marine mammals by navies. The job is one that is an obvious choice for a robotic proxy, but there are many problems. This article on the economist's Babbage blog makes for interesting reading on the pitfalls of sensing and navigating under water.

It seems we have a little way to go before precision undersea robotics becomes autonomous...