engineering

Thymio

Thymio is a engineering topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Thymio rather than just read about it. In short: Thymio II is an educational robot in the 100 Euros price range. The robot was developed at the EPFL in collaboration with ECAL, both in Lausanne, Switzerland.

Key takeaways

Thymio belongs to engineering; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Thymio to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Thymio from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Thymio II is an educational robot in the 100 Euros price range. The robot was developed at the EPFL in collaboration with ECAL, both in Lausanne, Switzerland. A purely-visual programming language was developed at ETH Zurich.

One of the unique features of these robots is its design, production, and commercialization by a full open-source and non-profit chain of actors. This very alternative approach has been justified by the educational goal of the project. The design has been mainly made by universities (EPFL, écal and ETHZ) within research programs (NCCR Robotics). Mechanics, electronics and software are open source. The company producing Thymio, called Mobsya is a non-profit organization. Many articles have been written about how to teach with Thymio in the classroom including the article, "Classroom robotics: Motivating independent learning and discovery" on Robohub. Research and new Thymio projects are constantly being done as noted by IEEE. In 2020 Thymio's pedagogical design was evaluated by Education Alliance Finland. In the evaluation, a group of teacher-evaluators in Switzerland assessed Thymio's curriculum alignment, pedagogy, and usability through using a science-based product evaluation method, developed by Education Alliance Finland and Finnish educational researchers. The product evaluation was funded by Stiftung Mercator and as an outcome of the evaluation, Thymio was granted a pedagogical quality certification. The robot is in production and distributors of Thymio include Sturiel.com and TechyKids.com.

Simulation A simulation model of the Thymio II compatible with Aseba Studio is available in Webots and a 3D interactive model of the robot can be found here.

Contests Since August 18, 2017, the Thymio II robot is used in various international online contest on Robotbenchmark.

References

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Thymio

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Thymio claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In engineering, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Thymio before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Thymio ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Thymio

In research: Thymio appears in engineering research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Thymio in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Thymio is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Robots, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Thymio outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Thymio in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Thymio means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Thymio out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Thymio in simple terms?

Thymio II is an educational robot in the 100 Euros price range. The robot was developed at the EPFL in collaboration with ECAL, both in Lausanne, Switzerland.

Why does Thymio matter?

Because it connects several engineering ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Thymio?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Thymio.