Have you ever dreamed of having a robot as a friend? Well, the Meccano M.A.X can be your personal smartbot! M.A.X is not only programmed to respond to certain commands, but it can also learn from kids and build knowledge about their interactions with its incredible artificial intelligence technology. The best part is that students even get exposure to engineering as they build the M.A.X from scratch and then teach it new behaviors, skills, and tricks using voice commands, buttons on its ‘MeccaBrain,’ or using its free app.
Once built from its 332 parts, the M.A.X measures a full 12 inches tall! It’s designed for students aged 10 and up and is categorized as a Level 3 robot with intermediate complexity for assembling and programming. It has a large graphical face to showcase its emotions and is powered by batteries that can be re-charged with the included charger.
The Meccano M.A.X is one of our most complex robots and, as I started playing around with it, I could see why! We built M.A.X and one of the other Meccano robots, the Meccanoid G15KS Personal Robot earlier this year. M.A.X’s software was already downloaded, which includes its base level of knowledge. Although I didn’t get to build Meccano M.A.X, I did get to play with it and tell it to do certain things! In order to have M.A.X understand what I was saying, I used certain voice commands such as “Let me introduce you” and “I want to show you something.” M.A.X is very curious, so it always responded with great interest whether I was introducing it to my co-worker, Ahmed, or showing it what I brought for lunch.
The more students play and interact with M.A.X, the more it understands and learns about them. It also unlocks more features, like joke and fortune telling, game playing, and dancing! Kids can also use the colored buttons on M.A.X’s MeccaBrain to quickly access certain features, such as exit, record, fun/games, and assist. M.A.X will begin to remember things on its own as it continuously builds knowledge whenever children interact with it.
Kids can even set the M.A.X to be on patrol! It can act as security guard and alert them when it senses any lights or sounds. M.A.X could even be a deejay as well! While learning basic programming, students can change the speed, scratch the record, or rewind the song by moving M.A.X in certain ways. While this is pretty cool, I thought its most outrageous talent was undoubtedly its ability to act as a personal delivery man! Kids can set it to delivery mode and M.A.X will hold an object in its claw and then drive to a specific location to complete the delivery, which is pretty awesome!
The possibilities with M.A.X. are endless! If you’re searching for a complex robot geared towards older students while helping them build critical engineering and programming skills, M.A.X. is a great option. It introduces artificial intelligence technology in an interactive and fun way, requiring students to constantly engage in critical thinking and build on their STEM knowledge.
To purchase a Meccano M.A.X., visit the Eduporium store! And, look out next Wednesday for the next edition of the Eduporium Experiment featuring the new Wonder Workshop robot, Cue! In the meantime, don't forget to follow us on Twitter and Instagram for more and you might as well like us on Facebook, too!