2018 FINALIST
EDISON EDUCATIONAL ROBOT
ANDREW ROGERS INDUSTRIAL DESIGN
Category:
PRODUCT DESIGN
EDUCATION
Design:
ANDREW ROGERS
About
Andrew Rogers Industrial Design facilitates entrepreneurs via research, design, engineering, tooling, production, logistics and quality control, we provide design and manufacturing solutions from concept to point of sale, and our extensive range of services cover specialist hand crafted single items to full mass production, Edison is one example of more than 300 products that ARID has taken from concept to point of sale over the past 30 years, the products range in complexity and size ARID endeavours to engage in projects that make a difference in people’s lives while returning profits to stakeholders.
Design Challenge
Edison is a programmable robot designed to be a complete STEM teaching resource for coding and robotics education for students from 4 to 16 years of age. The Edison robot is a powerful, engaging tool for teaching kids computational thinking and computer programming in a hands-on way. With more built-in sensors than any robot in its class as well as lights, sounds and autonomous behaviour capabilities, Edison makes true robotics education accessible to students of all ages. Not just a remote-controlled robot, Edison can: • Respond to light and sound • Follow lines and avoid obstacles • Communicate with other Edison robots • Connect to other Edison robots and LEGO bricks All these features were required to be designed into an extremely strong and versatile self-contained solution that could be shipped to most countries around world delivered to the door for less than $50.00 USD less than 25% of the cost of the nearest competitor.
Design Solution
The result is Edison a super affordable programmable almost indestructible Lego compatible robot. Lego has effectively become an industrial standard for construction blocks, more than 15 visions are made by various manufactures, and it is used almost universally in schools around the world for teaching basic engineering principles. Lego manufacture their own programmable module that sells for approximately $1000.00 per student set and takes a minimum of 4 hours preparation time before it can be shared by students. Edison provides a market alternative that disrupts the current STEM robotics education a business model in a number of ways. It is cheap enough for each student to have their robot The robot can be used within 20 seconds of opening the box The robots interact with each other to encourage cooperation between students The robot is very strong and outlasts many of it more expensive competitors The robot is instantly engaging for students and has demonstrated better STEM learning outcomes
Design Impact
Edison Robot and Edison EdCreate expansion kit have been sold in more than 23 countries around the world and have become a standard for the a number of states in the USA and UAE school’s curriculum, since the launch of Edison 4 years ago we have seen a sustained year on year sales growth of %50, more than 200,000 Edison robots have been sold around the world.
Other Key Features
ARID provides a turnkey solution from design concept to fished solution delivered to the distribution centre in Hong Kong. All research and development is completed in South Australia, this includes design prototyping, testing and ongoing quality control and continuous improvement product support, and this has resulted in an outstanding high quality product for our customer and ARID doubling the size of its full time workforce.