Breeding Robots to Learn How to Rule Complex Systems

Educational robotics has been extensively used to teach hard skills such as computer science, computational thinking and coding because traditional robotics is the outcome of analysis, design and programming. Other approaches to robotics, namely evolutionary robotics, open the way to reflection on emergence, self-organization, dynamical systems. As these issues are relevant in present days society, we propose a robotic laboratory where children are trained to rule complex systems. In particular, the integrated hardware/software system BrainFarm, that allows to evolve and train virtual robots and then test them in physical environments, is employed to train these skills and a successful experience in informal context is described.