A swarm framework for teaching elementary addition operations

Abstract

The advent of low-cost, functional robots has promoted swarm robotics research. However, an area of research that is yet untouched is how these types of robots could aid in teaching STEM subjects. In particular, there is little work concerning mathematics at the elementary level. The Kilobot robot's size, cost, and functionality offers a good test-bed to explore its use as a pedagogical tool. This work presents a swarm framework to teach elementary mathematical addition operations to children. A state-based synchronous algorithm was used to enable robots to represent both operands and result digits in mathematical operations, all the while exploiting the robots sounds, motion, and illumination to enhance children's learning factors. The system is demonstrated in the V-REP simulation environment to demonstrate the feasibility of the approach.