This Toy Robot Injects Steroids Into Lego Projects

Lego is, first and foremost, fun. Building with those small plastic blocks also teaches some fundamentals of engineering: how to build a structure that won’t topple over—that is, one stable enough to survive getting trampled by the family dog. A new robotic toy on Kickstarter can also make playing with Lego a lesson in computer programming. So you can hedge your bets by steering your kid toward two lucrative careers at once, under the guise of unstructured playtime.

Edison, as the robot is called, is essentially a battery-operated toy car equipped with sensors that allow it to see and hear. It can detect obstacles, move along a path, and respond to changes in light levels and sound commands such as clapping. Brenton O’Brien, founder of Australian company Microbric, says he developed Edison as an affordable teaching tool for schools: At about $36, it’s cheaper than most textbooks.