Root Robotics’s 50,000 robots for South Korean school kids shows coding projects can hit scale

The Root Robotics flagship robot looks a little bit like a miniature hexagonal Roomba — but instead of cleaning up messes, it shows kids how to code. Users can program it to draw, move, and sing through a mobile app. It’s demoing at the Consumer Electronics Show, and 50,000 Root robots will soon be teaching kids Python, JavaScript, and Swift in South Korea via a partnership with after-school coding academy Coding & Play. Starting in June, it will also be available to purchase for $200.

Root’s app has three levels of gamified coding. In the first level, kids build programs by using colorful “blocks” that represent code. As they progress, they unlock more of these modules and can make the robot perform more actions. The robot comes with a scanner on the bottom that can detect colors, and it also lights up with colors, makes noises, and holds a pen or marker so that it can draw as it moves. Once students are advanced enough, the code begins to look less like blocks and more like actual programming.