Parallax Inc. Heads to USA Science & Engineering Festival to Provide Hands-On Robot Demos to Kids

Parallax STEM Education Robots Will Star in Interactive Booth

Rocklin, CA April 15, 2014


Parallax Inc., a noted robotics and electronics manufacturer, heads to the Washington D.C. USA Science and Engineering Festival. For over 25 years the company has been creating educational robots and tools to teach kids about STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math).

Parallax travels around the country teaching educators and attending STEM-related events. The company recently released a new robot called the ActivityBot. This robot is a sequel to the popular Parallax Boe-Bot Robot used in schools worldwide. The affordable ActivityBot is programmed in C language and teaches students hardware and programming skills. Beginner-level experiments are conducted with hands-on circuitry and multi-core programming. Parallax provides step-by-step tutorials. Students build the small robot, create circuits, program, and collaborate in classroom challenges. The low price point and free programming software encourages a robot for every student.

The company will demo the ActivityBot at USASEF. The dynamic exhibit will feature robots rolling autonomously around the booth. The Parallax Arlo Robot, a mid-size disk platform, will also be present. Arlo robots will wear collars equipped with RFID tags to prevent them from leaving the booth. Sensors on all robots will allow for interactive play with attendees. "At our booth you'll walk around with large American flag-carrying robots," says Ken Gracey, Parallax CEO. USASEF, held April 26 & 27, is the largest science festival in the United States.

Parallax believes in learning through hands-on electronics exposure and experimentation. The company's educational website (Learn.Parallax.com) provides those who want to learn with the tools they need to succeed. The site is home to robotics tutorials, projects, teacher resources, and competition ideas.

Both ActivityBot and Arlo robots are powered by the Parallax Propeller multi-core microcontroller. The Propeller chip features eight 32-bit processors, shared memory, a system clock, and true independent and cooperative simultaneous multi-tasking. This makes the Propeller microcontroller a perfect fit for robotics applications.

About Parallax:

Equip your genius with Parallax Inc. For over 25 years Parallax has provided the electronics industry with high quality robotics, revolutionary microcontrollers, a wide variety of sensors, and a complete line of learning kits for education. (Parallax.com)

Featured Product

BitFlow Introduces 6th Generation Camera Link Frame Grabber: The Axion

BitFlow Introduces 6th Generation Camera Link Frame Grabber: The Axion

BitFlow has offered a Camera Link frame grabbers for almost 15 years. This latest offering, our 6th generation combines the power of CoaXPress with the requirements of Camera Link 2.0. Enabling a single or two camera system to operate at up to 850 MB/S per camera, the Axion-CL family is the best choice for CL frame grabber. Like the Cyton-CXP frame grabber, the Axion-CL leverages features such as the new StreamSync system, a highly optimized DMA engine, and expanded I/O capabilities that provide unprecedented flexibility in routing. There are two options available; Axion 1xE & Axion 2xE. The Axion 1xE is compatible with one base, medium, full or 80-bit camera offering PoCL, Power over Camera Link, on both connectors. The Axion 2xE is compatible with two base, medium, full or 80-bit cameras offering PoCL on both connectors for both cameras. The Axion-CL is a culmination of the continuous improvements and updates BitFlow has made to Camera Link frame grabbers.