Sphero Indi Is a Tiny Robotic Car That Helps Children Learn Programming

Robotic toys for learning are becoming more common in the market as kids turn more towards STEM learning. As a result, we’ve seen several modular and advanced robotic toys that are designed to help children learn the basic concepts of programming and problem-solving. And the Sphero indi is not that different.

The Sphero indi

Developed by renowned robotic-toy maker Sphero, the indi is essentially a toy car that helps children learn about the core concepts of problem-solving and logical thinking. The learning set comes with the indi, which the tiny robotic car, and a bunch of color-coded silicone-based tiles, designed to give the indi specific instructions.

For instance, a green tile tells the car to move faster, a pink tile tells it to turn left, a yellow one instructs the car to drive slowly, and a red tile stops the car. So, the car comes equipped with a color sensor to detect the color of a tile over which it is driving and respond accordingly.

Hence, using the Sphero indi, kids can design their own courses and mazes with the given tiles. Moreover, the set includes challenge cards that come with a course and some missing tiles. These challenges push the learner to figure out a way to get the car from point A to B, despite the missing tiles.

The indi charges via a USB port and comes with speakers and LED lights. Furthermore, the toy does not require any connection to a smartphone or a companion app to work. It starts working right after you take it out of the box and provides a screenless learning experience for your little one. However, if your kid is ready to level up a bit, they can use the Sphero Edu Jr app to customize the instructions using a block-based language.

Price and Availability

The Sphero indi is currently up for pre-orders on its official website. It comes as an individual student kit and a class kit. The student kit includes the indi robotic car, 20 color-coded tiles, 15 challenge cards, and costs $125 (~Rs 9,140). The class kit, on the other hand, includes resources for eight children and costs $1,199 (~Rs 87,770). The company expects to ship the kits from September.

-by Technonic Group