Sapling & The Travelling Forest

Sapling and the Travelling forest is a desktop robot "board game" for 4-7 year olds that plays spatial learning games. Sapling is intended to be utilized in a classroom setting, though could be played with in the home with supervision. Sapling's puzzles were built on existing spatial learning exercises, and playtested at the local science center to understand children's interaction patterns with the robot, prior to creating the full design.

The robot utilizes a 3DOF design (X, Y, theta) to move Sapling around the board to play various games. The system is driven by an RFID system, allowing for different board games to be played without changing the core technology. All graphics, design, and mechantronics were custom developed. The games were created based on existing spatial learning platforms and tools for young children.