Drones aren't toys, right? What about ones built out of Legos?
That's what Flybrix unveiled today: a durable drone made out a handful of Lego bricks that's designed to be crashed and rebuilt again and again. But to Holly Kasun, who calls herself Flybrix's "Chief Play Officer," it's not a toy. Instead, she thinks of Flybrix as an educational tool that just happens to use some of the world's most popular building blocks as its, well, building blocks.
Professionals or enthusiasts who fly expensive drones may scoff at the notion of one made of Legos, but its imperfections are all part of the process. Flybrix is intended as a simple, fun way to teach kids science, technology, engineering, and math skills (STEM).
"The approachability of Lego far outweighs any potential criticism of using this medium," Kasun said during a recent demo of the Flybrix drone for PCMag in San Francisco.
For $149, you get a basic kit that includes assorted Lego bricks, motors, propellers, an open-source flight control circuit board, a controller, and Flybrix's Android, iOS and desktop apps. You then set about building your drone, which Kasun estimates will take about 15 minutes.
The building process really is as easy as snapping bricks together, though as someone who has flown drones before, I kept thinking about how improbable it was that a Lego creation would actually be controllable in the air. Indeed, once I grabbed the controller and took off, the drone stayed aloft for just a few seconds before spiraling out of control and crashing into dozens of pieces. Kasun's drone lasted only a few seconds longer.
But crashing is the whole point, she said. She hopes Flybrix will be an integral part of future after-school robotics clubs and even classrooms, where teachers can use the cycle of building, flying, crashing, and rebuilding as a way to teach aerodynamics and electrical engineering.
The app also encourages kids to tinker with the flight control logic. While the control board automatically adjusts for imperfectly aligned motors, its code can be modified from within the app, and is also available on Github.
"Making drones is not easy," Kasun admitted. "Having a hands-on experience is critical to the learning process."
So is a bit of friendly competition. Flybrix ships with some simple games like Battle Bricks, designed to practice controlled flying—if that's even possible with a Lego drone. The idea is that pilots can challenge each other while they learn.
Ultimately, whether or not a child will take to Flybrix depends a lot his or her attention span and familiarity with Legos. In beta tests, Kasun said that "kids would be crying" when their time was up because they wanted to fly some more.