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)