Hey DJ, don't knock the Raspberry Pi XBMC ... It's providing me with hours and hours of entertainment with Gilligan's Island re-runs... And when my Arduino blinks, it's time to give my cat her medicine...

Here is why I would use one.

1. Far more powerful because you have the power of a computer running the processing. As mentioned by DJ, look at all of the truly advanced robotic development and you will quickly see that they follow this model.

2. Access to a much larger set of data. For example, now that you are doing your processing from a computer, you can now have access to the internet and all of its data, along with databases, text files and other network resources.

3. Ability to expand. You can have up to 5 V4's working with each other (not physically connected to each other). This allows for much better expandability.

4. Ability to leverage off of all of the development work that has taken place already allowing you to be years ahead of other platforms. Things like use of GPS, Compass, Sonar, IR, Servos, Serial communication, speech recognition, Microphones, Speech Synthesis, Cameras, HBridges, Floor mapping, MP3 Triggers and the list goes on and on are already there for you to use.

5. Very easy to program in a scripting language that is very learnable and has a lot of help built into the app.

6. Programmable components using a number of modern programming languages if you choose to do so.

7. MULTITHREADING. You can do more than one thing at a time, allowing your robot to handle situations far more smoothly than the other platforms.

8. More responsive due to the processing of the data taking place on a machine capable of processing a lot of data, and your sensors and other components being able to use that additional processing time.

9. Great community of people who are willing to help with the issues that you are facing, and they are all in one place instead of spread out over multiple sites.

10. Have him/her do some research on the history of computers and what the key things were that allowed them to break into the mainstream population. This is what EZ-Robots is doing. Powerful but simple to use. You dont need to know how to program Assembly to be able to use a computer anymore. You dont have to know how to program C to make an incredible robot anymore.

LOL DJ - you said it all my friend and better then we could. But @yatakitombi asks a good fundamental question I bet many educators will have because Lego, Pi, Arduino and Parallax probably currently enjoy a better known educational foot print.

And something those other products have are how to books and student oriented material. Any thoughts or plans or produce those at EZ-Robot? If not anyone interested in writing a book with me?

I am fighting this battle myself. EZ-Robot will become far more well known. It is just going to take time.

The 2 main things that I am stumbling on are

1. Is there a curriculum for this like the other ones? Please dont take offence if you are an educator but many educators want to be given a curriculum to follow and not have to do that type of work themselves.
2. Are there competitions like lego and the others have? This one makes me want to put a bullet in my head. I really think these limit the imagination of the student far too much.

In any event, I push forward knowing that it is by far the best robotic platform available, especially for education.

http://ailtq.com/

Michael Nelson Curriculum & Instructional Specialist

He is a member on this forum. MNelson33 I think. I asked if they were working on an EZ-Robot Curriculum but havent heard back yet. He might be worth contacting.

Right on @d.cochran! Those are big questions for educators. And not just the class room teacher, but the school board the Principle and so on because the classroom teacher usually does not get to decide. They may have the idea, but someone else has to write the check. And they ask those two questions.

Parents too. I don't doubt if I gave my local school 100 EZ-Robots kits they would not ask those same two questions. And likely without a curriculum and contest they'd let the kits collect dust. stress

if I didnt need to work, I would be working on these two things. It takes a lot of time and energy to tackle these two items, and I know EZ-Robots staff is small and very busy right now.

I am going to be putting forth some effort on the competition side. Every other year there is an international botball tournament 20 miles from where I live. I would love to be able to leverage off of that crowd of like minded people to start another competition that is open to any controller. It would be far more complex competitions than botball. I dont know. I wish I had won the lottery so that I could focus only on these issues, but I havent (dont even play actually).

<<I dont know. I wish I had won the lottery so that I could focus only on these issues, but I havent (dont even play actually).

I'm with you d.cochran!

I've been tinkering with a couple of book ideas for EZ-Robot. I'm just curious if the EZ-Robot staff have any plans for books or curriculum?

Perhaps if a core of us had an interesting in helping create a curriculum we could collaborate and tackle different subjects? That's pretty much how Parallax built up their material base, the customers wrote the books.

Another thought, if author Gordon McComb, writer of the "Robot Builder's Bonanza" series had an EZ-Robot he just might have an interest in writing a book for it. I can reach out to Gordon if the EZ-Robot staff would like me too? Would you guys send him a kit to review and experiment with if he is interested?