Thymio educational robot

Thymio is an open-source educational robot designed by researchers from EPFL, in collaboration with ECAL, and produced by Mobsya, a nonprofit association whose mission is to offer comprehensive, engaging STEAM journeys to learners of all ages.

The increase of digitalization offers an unprecedented opportunity to make digital education accessible to everyone on an equal opportunity basis. Many countries such as Switzerland, France, Belgium, Canada, and Tunisia have already included programming, computational thinking and educational robotics in their compulsory curricula, with more and more policymakers following suit each year.

The Thymio mobile robot can already be seen equipping schools across primary, secondary, and University levels. It is produced and distributed by Mobsya, a nonprofit association that continues to develop Thymio into a complete digital education concept centered around three core pillars:

• Sustainable, open-source platform: The Thymio educational robot is a small interactive teaching device, based entirely on open-source hardware and software. The robot is compact, very robust and features numerous LEDs that provide immediate feedback on the robot’s perceptions, touch-sensitive keys, an accelerometer, two independent motors, a microphone, speakers and much more. It is designed and suitable for use in all educational contexts from primary schools to universities.
• Simple programming interfaces: Thymio enables you to discover the world of robotics and to learn a robot’s language. Everyone can grow at their own pace, starting with six plug-and-play pre-programmed modes and advancing through increasingly sophisticated programming options (visual, block-based, full text code) in order to develop computational thinking and coding skills, as well as transversal skills, such as communication, collaboration, critical thinking and creativity.
• Rich learning resources and ecosystem: One of the key strengths of Thymio in supporting compulsory education is that the platform comes with exciting learning journeys based on ready-to-use educational activities that empower, inspire, and raise curiosity in users of all ages, whose expertise may range from novice to proficient. Building these diverse STEAM and so-called 21st century transversal skills through multi-faceted learning journeys, such as those shared among members of the Thymio and Mobsya community hub, encourages active involvement in digital society.

Come and join the community of teachers and supporters of educational robotics with Thymio!