Towards Inexpensive Robots for Science & Technology Teaching and Education in Africa

As technology becomes a greater part of our everyday lives it becomes more difficult to keep young children interested and engaged using conventional educational methods. While it can be observed that youngsters have only a few problems with operating their cell phones, it does not mean that this prepares them well for the challenges of the 21st century. Additional education is required that teaches the basic principles of science and technology without scaring the youngsters away from the subject while still keeping them engaged in the learning process. Educational robotics has proven itself to be a good vehicle for educating pupils with thousands of learners participating in robotic competitions such as RoboCup Junior world-wide. In this paper we report on our first steps towards developing an inexpensive educational robot that is suited (a) for participating in competitions such as RoboCup Junior and (b) for university education and research.