Topobo: A Constructive Assembly System with Kinetic Memory iCampus Symposium December 2, 2006 Hayes Raffle & Amanda Parkes Tangible Media Group MIT 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

Context of Research and Related 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 doing Froebel’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. curlybot Phil Frei, 2002

Digital manipulatives — LEGO Mindstorms ® GUI is used for procedural programming abstract and flexible decoupled from physical modeling processes

curlybot Phil Frei, 2002 I/O Brush Kimiko 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

Early Design Studies: Virtual motion Karl Sims Ed Burton, SodaPlay, 2001

Distributed actuation Modular, scalable system Early Design Studies: modular robotics Kotay 1999: Real MoleculeYim 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

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 system Constructive assembly + kinetic memory What is the spirit of a building toy, the spirit of manipulatives? How can computation enhance this process?

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 cricket microcontrollers Breadboard prototype & interface foster collaboration accessible to younger children

1 active component 9 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/comm port 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 distribution circuitry power / comm ports 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

Interactions with Kids and 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

Pedagogical Topics: torque / leverage levers can reveal limited strength of Actives

Pedagogical Topics: Coordination of moving parts Coordinate with a peer Queen to coordinate motions in time.

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.

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.

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 including Ars Electronica, SIGGRAPH Emerging Technologies, Wired NextFest, and ArtBots, with more upcoming appearances We 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! Hayes Raffle & Amanda Parkes Tangible Media Group MIT Media Laboratory