Marty the Robot – a new educational robot produced by Robotical in Edinburgh, has just won a huge contract from the Wise Club in South Korea.
Over 2000 Martys will now be going over to help teach Korean children about coding.
Since Marty’s launch in 2017 Robotical has increase production to macth demand, now available on Amazon for the first time.
The demand for Marty is global, highlighted by the recent order from the Wise Club in Korea.
The Wise Club is a South Korean education company, which provides extra tuition after the school day has ended. The Wise Club’s headquarters are in Seoul, but it has 50 offices and over 1000 contracted teachers who work across the country. The Wise Club is the number one provider of extracurricular coding education in South Korea, with the demand for its coding courses increasingly dramatically in recent years. They have ordered over 2,000 Marty the Robots to assist with teaching its students to code.
Myles Bax, Business Development at Robotical,who recently visited Korea to finalise the deal, explains: “The contract with the Wise Club is very exciting for us, and we’re looking forward to developing our ongoing partnership. The initial order will be used to demonstrate what Marty can do and then Wise Club will be developing coding classes using Marty.”
Marty the Robot has also been named a finalist in the Best New Product category in the 2018 Made in Scotland Awards which celebrate Scottish innovation.
Robotical founder, Dr Alexander (Sandy) Enoch, comments: “We have had an excellent response to Marty since the launch, and being named a finalist in the Made in Scotland Awards is just further evidence that hopefully what we are doing is making a difference in educating the next generation of coders and engineers.
“Marty the Robot is all about taking the technology I used during my PhD in robotics, and making it accessible. I’m happy we’re able to offer Marty more widely, and give more young people a chance to get some hands on experience of physical computing and robotics. I really hope we’ll inspire a few to consider STEM careers, as well as encourgaing those who are already engaged to progress faster.”
Usable from primary school to university – Marty is a real walking robot for the price of a smart toy. For kids, makers, educators, and anybody who just wants a cute robot Marty makes learning about programming, electronics, and mechanical engineering a fun and engaging process. With its unique leg mechanism, Marty can walk, turn, dance and even kick a ball. It’s easier to use than most walking robots, and unlike a smart toy it’s a serious platform for learning.”
Robotical is an Edinburgh based start-up which aims to inspire, engage, and educate the next generation of engineers and scientists by letting them get hands on experience with their very own actual walking robot.
Robotical recently raised its first round of seed funding, securing investment totalling £285,000. Investors include Rob Dobson, Gareth Williams from SkyScanner and Professor David Lane from the Edinburgh Centre for Robotics.
Marty has won several awards since its creation, including: a Scottish EDGE Award 2016, Royal Academy of Engineering Enterprise Fellowship, 2nd Prize in the EU Robotics Forum entrepreneurship award, and the Converge Challenge Design and Creativity award.