Tanglebots

Tanglebots is a workshop format for children and their families, forming a messy introduction into weaving, robotics and coding. Tanglebots are prototype/failed weaving robots (weaving is quite hard, so we start with tangles and see what patterns emerge). We combine harvesting components from e-waste toys (motors, gears, electronics), and using visual programming (scratch) to control these components, to create robots that make tangles.

We were joined in this adventure by weavecoders Alex McLean, Ellen Harlizius-Klück and Lovebytes. We also ran a Tanglebots workshop for children with autism, in collaboration with the Cultural Minds research group at the University of Exeter.

You can find all our workshop materials, Raspberry Pi code and instructions on this GitHub repository, so you can run your own Tanglebots workshop.