This year could be the first to see robots under the Christmas tree. The commercial version of a tiny hand-held robotic system invented by Dr Fred Martin of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology is being marketed in Britain by Lego at £170 sterling.
This tiny "programmable brick" can be built into a Lego construction of plastic parts, motors and gears - also supplied - to create an autonomous "hands off" computer-driven vehicle.
Dr Martin took a break from a holiday with his fiancee to give a short talk at Dublin City University yesterday. He said he hoped the toy would follow Nintendo and play stations in becoming part of contemporary children's culture - "getting children doing designs and trading ideas about how things are constructed". He explained how the "micro controllers" he constructs have wide applications for students of all ages. He believes the best education is one which gets children to make things and thus learn for themselves how the world works. Dr Martin then showed a video of 10- and 11-year-old American schoolchildren building their own trucks and dinosaurs to chase each other around a "robotic park".
"They research an animal and then build a robotic model which demonstrates its behaviour and habitat," he said. On the screen was a blue crablike contraption, built by the children, embracing a coffee-pot.
What is true for 10-year-olds also goes for the brightest of bright students at MIT. One of the high points of their academic year - "comparable to homecoming celebrations at football games in other universities" - is the MIT Lego Robot Design competition every January.
This brings 150 students together in 50 teams to design and build robots, which then engage in mock sporting encounters. The video showed the students whooping and cheering as two octopus-like robots raced and collided and competed in a surreal game of software-driven ping-pong.
Dr Martin does not like the militaristic connotations of games like Robot Wars. His creations are about using computer technology to play and learn and create, not to destroy.