A.  Program our Remote Robots from Anywhere

A remote robot is a robotic project that can be programmed by anyone with an internet connection.

We’ve set up two Hummingbird Kit robots that anyone, anywhere can program in real time! To program a robot just click on the program button under the videos. Please use a Chrome or Firefox browser when programming the robot.

Teachers, are you excited by the idea of setting up your own remote robots for your students to access online? Keep scrolling for tutorials on Remote Finch and Remote Hummingbird setup.


Tips

  • You can follow our tutorials on single-color LEDs, tri-color LEDs, and servos to learn how to program those parts of the robots.
  • The video has a 10-15 second lag – so when you click a block or run a program, it will take a moment to see on the screen. Each sample project has a small program pre-built for you, that starts when you hit the green flag.
  • You have 20 minutes with any one robot before the robot will disconnect. You can reconnect immediately after the timeout.
  • If one of the cameras seems to be missing, try refreshing the page.
  • Sometimes the project code fails to load in the Chrome browser and the page turns white, black, or dark gray. If this happens, try refreshing or opening the link in Firefox.

B.  Make Your Own Remote Robot

Interested in setting up a robot that students can access from any location with internet access?

Dive in to our tutorials!

Make Your Own Hummingbird Remote Robot

Learn How

Make Your Own Finch

Remote Robot

Learn How

C.  Manage Learning Remotely with MakeCode

MakeCode offers a great set of tools for remote teaching that apply well to a 1:1 scenario where all of your students have a robot at home, or to a remote robots scenario where you would like students to program a robot at your location.

Learn more

 

 

 

D. Remote Teaching Case Studies

Virtual Robotics Camps
with RoboFun

RoboFun takes their traditional camps online with the Hummingbird Robotics Kit!

Download PDF

Undergrads & 5th Graders
Co-learn Coding & Robotics

Old Dominion University teams up pre-service teachers, engineering students, & 5th graders to co-learn robotics virtually!

Download PDF

Middle School Girls Explore
Creative Robotics Virtually

Gwynedd Mercy pivoted quickly to create virtual robotics for middle schoolers!

Download PDF

* Inspirations & Thanks

Remote Robots was inspired by the Telepresence Robot Kit (TeRK), a project at CMU’s CREATE Lab in 2006-2008. There isn’t much about it on the internet, but here’s a press release and a 2007 paper.

It would not be possible to run these robots without NetsBlox, a project at Vanderbilt university’s school of engineering. We’d like to thank Akos Ledeczi, the principal developer of NetsBlox, for explaining the system and sharing examples.