Topobo: A Constructive Assembly System with Kinetic Memory

iCampus Symposium December 2, 2006

Hayes Raffle & Amanda Parkes Tangible Media GroupMIT Media Laboratory

Today’s Workshop

• Topobo system design

• Results of evaluation with children ages 5-13

• On-going outreach with Topobo

• Hands-on play with Topobo - build your own walking creature

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Context of Research andRelated Work

• young children (ages 2-6) can be formally educated. • physical objects (“gifts”) enable learning about common natural forms and processes. • learning happens through physical manipulation of objects, as formalized by Piaget.

Early Educational Manipulatives: learning by doingFroebel’s kindergarten “gifts” (1840)

Cuisinaire rods let children experiment with number, equality, and algebraic ideas.

Educational manipulatives: specially designed tools

With pattern blocks, children can explore geometry

K’Nex®tectonic building

Construction toys: learning through building

LEGO® stacking

ZOOB®biological building

LEGO Mindstorms® Elec. Blocks Peta Wyeth 2002

Digital manipulatives

Combining educational manipulatives with computation and communications technology can help children create new kinds of models to understand advanced ideas like feedback and emergence.

curlybotPhil Frei, 2002

Digital manipulatives — LEGO Mindstorms®

• GUI is used for procedural programming• abstract and flexible• decoupled from physical modeling processes

curlybotPhil Frei, 2002

I/O BrushKimiko Ryokai, 2004

Tangible Interfaces for learning — aesthetics

• physical structure does not represent control structure• decoupled program structure is limited, not obvious how to edit• child can express desires and aesthetics in the model

Early Design Studies : dynamics

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Early Design Studies: Virtual motion

Karl Sims

Ed Burton, SodaPlay, 2001

• Distributed actuation• Modular, scalable system

Early Design Studies: modular robotics

Kotay 1999: Real Molecule Yim 2000: Polybot

How to design strong and flexible structures? • Crystals: regular arrangement of solids • Bone structures: spatial looping for strength

Early Design Studies : structure

Thompson 1942: crystal packing and structure of a bird’s wing bone

Early Design Studies : structure

Early Design Studies : structure

Constantin Brancusi, Endless Column, 1937

Early Design Studies: kinetic & gestural representation

Marcel Duchamp, Nude Descending a Staircase,1912

Giacomo Balla, Abstracted Speed, 1913

Topobo System Design

Topobo systemConstructive assembly + kinetic memory

What is the spirit of a building toy, the spirit of manipulatives?How can computation enhance this process?

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• Be accessible, yet sophisticated (appeal to multiple aged users)

• Be robust

• Be meaningful even if the power is turned off

• Be expressive (afford certain activities, but don’t prescribe “right” and “wrong” uses)

• Engage multiple senses

• Be scalable

Design Principles

First Prototypes

Prototype using cricketmicrocontrollers

Breadboard prototype & interface

• foster collaboration• accessible to younger children

1 active component9 passive components

System design: geometry

Final Components

• shapes are color coded

• 1 Active, 9 Passives

• robust injection molded parts

Scaling is based on the fibonacci ratio • models natural structures • like scaling of human bones

Passive Components

Scaling 3:2

Geometry allows spatial loops • strength • modularity

Passive Components

• Ergonomic and intuitive• Look, work, and feel like a “real toy”

Active Component

power/commport

LEGO connector

clutch

Axis of rotation

Inside the clutch

Inside an Active Component

• based on modular robotics technology

button

Red/Green LED

40 MHz microcontroller

power distributioncircuitry

power / commports

servo motor

Programming an Active Component

1. Plug in Active2. Press the button

3. Record a motion4. Playback

Queens add centralized control

• Actives mimic the Queen

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Interactions with Kidsand Educational Implications

Interactions with 80 Kids: K, 2nd & 8th grades

• Implicitly teach physics concepts

• Usually these ideas are taught to college students.

• Can an tangible interface make them accessible to young kids?

Kindergarten: a “robot” toy & issues of complexity

• interface design was accessible, but a bit challenging.

• Queens were confusing

• collaboration

• it’s alive!

• a “robot” toy

• cause and effect?

A collaborative kindergarten creation.

Second grade activity: Methodology

• warm-up exercises: walking very slowly and talking about how their bodies moved.

• We showed several models of Topobo. How does Topobo walk?

• Coincident i/o was more magical.

• made: “ant, scorpion, spaceship, horse, rollies…”

Second grade: a building toy for play and discovery

2nd grade static scorpion shows Topobo is “meaningful even if the power is turned off.”

For about an hour, Dave tries to make a walking animal by testing ideas based on our examples and his own body.

Session 1• warm-up exercises with teacher: walk very slowly, then run. Write about how their bodies worked.

• We demonstrate how to use Topobo without showing any walking creations.

• 45 minutes free play, learn to use the system

• Homework: answer questions + draw a creation to build with unlimited parts.

Eighth grade Physics-By-Design class: Methodology

Session 2• Introduced Queen to all students

• With lab partner, draw a “walking creature” using up to 4 Actives.

• With lab partner, build a walking creature (30 minutes).

• Interview about the creation and design process, including students’ critique of Topobo system.

Eighth grade Physics-By-Design class: Methodology

Eighth graders: Physics by design

Design style: “Iterative Design” • form and motion are developed in tandem using an iterative and cumulative process. • final creations are different than original designs, but generally work better.

Eighth graders: Physics by design

Design style: “Compartmentalized design” • designing form is separate from designing motion. • final creations look like original designs, but do not walk. • through physical manipulation, children learned complex interrelationships between form and motion.

Pedagogical Topics: dynamic balance/center of mass

• children’s creations fall over

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Pedagogical Topics: torque / leverage

• levers can reveal limited strength of Actives

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Pedagogical Topics: Coordination of moving parts

• Coordinate with a peer• Queen to coordinate motions in time.

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Pedagogical Topics: local - global system behavior

• Children discovered use of Queen as a remote controller for debugging

• Queens show how a small local change is related to the movements of a global structure.

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Pedagogical Topics: movement in multiple degrees of freedom

• by combining Actives to make a single motion, children can experiment with creating motion in several DOF.

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Animals and Machines

• body syntonic learning (Papert, 1980).• kids understand motions in terms of their bodily experience.

Age Range Findings

• both 2nd and 8th graders thought Topobo was probably designed for their age range.

Lessons learned from studies with children• A design interface should support different design styles, including iterative design.

• The tangible interface was intuitive for exploring walking robots because it responded to the forces of nature that constrain real walking animals.

• A tangible interface should afford as much of its physical functionality as possible.

• Kids’ wanted to save and share their creations.

In addition to classrooms, Topobo has been shown at numerous museums, galleries, and festivals includingArs Electronica, SIGGRAPH Emerging Technologies, Wired NextFest, and ArtBots, with more upcoming appearancesWe are also planning weekend workshops at the Boston Museum of Science.

On-going outreach: workshops

Topobo at Wired NextFest 2004

On-going longitudinal outreach

• partner with Tufts CEEO (Center for Engineering Educational Outreach) to develop Topobo materials for classrooms and afterschool programs• math and science curriculum development, Shady Hill Elementary School, Cambridge

• engineering curriculum development, Brookline Public High School for units on biomechanics and locomotion

• technology & education research with at-risk youth and the elderly, U. of Joensuu, Finland

Thank you & let’s play!

http://web.media.mit.edu/~hayes/topoboHayes Raffle & Amanda Parkes Tangible Media GroupMIT Media Laboratory