In 1997, Parallax launched its educational microcontroller program with the Board of Education and BASIC Stamp 2 on a prototype metal robot chassis. That prototype evolved into the ground-breaking Boe-Bot robot, with what proved to be the most popular and enduring chassis for educational robots.
With over a million units produced, the Parallax Small Robot Chassis is now also used in more educational robots including the Shield-Bot with Arduino, Propeller ActivityBot 360°, and cyber:bot with micro:bit.
In 2020, Parallax started working on a large-scale cyber:bot model for summer conferences but had to push pause due to the pandemic. Recently, we resumed the project to showcase at upcoming conferences including NICEK12 and cyber.org EdCon.
To manufacture wheels, Parallax collaborated with DOCO Engineering. In a single day, DOCO manufactured four 12″ diameter wheels by milling acetyl copolymer on a Haas VF-2 CNC Machine. The wheels were fitted with O-ring tires, resulting in a flawless and convincing scaled-up version.
The next steps involve modifying the Motor Mount and Wheel Kit (#28962) to fit these wheels, and constructing large-scale micro:bit and cyber:bot board models. Once completed, the robot will be autonomous and remote-controlled, powered by an actual cyber:bot board and micro:bit module. Keep an eye out for it at the education conferences!
Ken Gracey
Parallax Inc.
The CYBER.ORG, the academic initiative of the Cyber Innovation Center (formerly NICERC) offers grant-funded cyber, STEM, and computer science curricula and professional development to K-12 educators at no cost.
Their goal is to empower educators as they prepare the next generation to succeed in the cyber workforce of tomorrow.
Parallax Inc. is proud to partner with CYBER.ORG, providing robotics and electronics hardware supply kits for their cyber curricula.
Find curriculum details, samples, and request access to the full resources at CYBER.ORG.
Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) Robotics Academy is an authorized non-profit partner who provides Professional Development (PD) with the Parallax Shield-Bot for Arduino. Sessions are offered both online and on site.
CMRA provides educators with free curricula on their Learning Management System, the CS-STEM Network (cs2n.org). the CS-STEM Network allows educators to create Groups, invite students, and then track their progress throughout their journey. See the curriculum that uses Shield-Bot here:
