Root Robotics is a technical and informatical engineering company that was founded only two years ago, with the amazing goal of teaching coding to young kids and adults in a new fun and more entertaining way.

The company was originally created in 2016 by the cofounders: Zee Dubrovsky, who worked in informatical engineering for Sonos and IRobot before joining the group. Raphael Cherney, former worker for the well known Apple company, and science professor at Harvard University, Radhika Nagpal. Only more recently though, the company has been noticed by schools and privates, who have started to support it through donations that helped them grow and solve the few issues that came up along the way.

Their latest invention is nonetheless an actual robot. With all the gear and mechanisms that we know for sure make one. But there’s a catch. The only way to make the robot, under the name of “Root”, move and do as one wants, is by coding the information and instructions through a simple app, Root Coding, provided by the creators of this machine. Unfortunately the app is now available only on apple displays, but as soon as this creation takes off and populates the classes, there will surely be an android version.

Root really steps up the game to robot engineering. The easiest way to use it is by simply positioning it on the ground, on top of a piece of paper, and letting the students imagination spark by making Root draw any kind of shapes on it. But Root has a new and way more useful functionality, which allows it to draw on whiteboards in classes with the use of a continuously improved suction cup. The app also has a mode that one can choose to use, which makes it easier to understand how the robot works. To make simple, this modality allows ones phone or device to become a controller for the robot; if the device is tilted to the left, Root will turn left, and if the device is turned right, guess what? Root will follow the instructions and turn right like the faithful robot it is.

This is considered to be a great accomplishment in the tech department, but let’s keep hoping these robots keep following the instructions they’re given, and they don’t take over the world any time soon.