mBot2 & Rover Kit: A Hands-On Overview

In this guide, we will be taking a dive into the mBot2 educational robotic ecosystem by Makeblock. It is a medium-dollar system that punches well above its weight in terms of features and quality, featuring wheeled bots, tracked bots, a solid aluminium construction system, an ESP32 packed with sensors, and a great Python and block coding experience.

The original mBot series launched over a decade ago and became Makeblock's breakout product. This new mBot2 series builds upon that legacy with a few goodies that make it feel like it dips into the territory of premium kits well beyond its price range.

There are a few options in terms of kits available, but for this overview, we are focusing on the Rover kit. This setup contains the base model mBot2 starter kit alongside a box of parts to upgrade it to the tracked Rover platform.

Let's get right into it!

Let's start with one of the big things – the construction system itself. mBot opts for an aluminium construction system utilising these distinct, anodised blue aluminium parts, which are bolted together mostly with standard M4-sized bolts.

While this system is a bit slower to build with than something like the snap-together Lego Technic-style systems you might find in higher-end Vex IQ kits, those aluminium parts make for an incredibly solid system. It feels a little more reflective of something you would build in the real world. The bot has quite a bit of heft to it, and it feels much harder to break than your standard plastic robotics parts.

There is something important to keep in mind with this system, however. There are a few threaded parts that might strip if someone tightens a bolt with all their might. Because of this, it is important to only nip things up as tight as they need to be. But as long as parts aren’t comically over-tightened, we feel like you are going to get a lot of reusability out of this construction system over the years.

In terms of the actual build experience, it's pretty darn good. The instructions are clear, it's hard to miss a step, and Makeblock has included a few little quality-of-life features that make it a pleasant experience. For example, when the manual asks for a specific bolt, it gives you a 1:1 scale image of the exact hardware you are after so you can verify it's the right-sized bolt.

We are getting a little ahead of ourselves, but the electronics are also fairly frustration-free. The plugs on the modules are keyed so they only fit in the correct orientation, and the sensors daisy-chain together using I2C. There really aren’t too many annoying or fiddly steps to get caught up on.

When it comes to age appropriateness, we think the different kits cater to slightly different levels. We feel that the basic mBot2 starter kit is perfectly suitable for the 8+ age range. However, the Rover platform we are looking at here is a little bit more involved and fiddly due to the tracked chassis and extra parts, making it a better fit for the 12+ age range.

Mounting onto the chassis is the CyberPi and its module system. This is the little computer that you will actually be programming. Under the hood is an ESP32 microcontroller running some custom, almost operating-system-like firmware.

By itself, the CyberPi has enough bells and whistles to be a pretty decent educational tool. It has built-in Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, meaning it can handle some very basic IoT (Internet of Things) projects. It also features a gyroscope and accelerometer, as well as a small colour screen, a microphone, and a speaker.

But the mBot2 kits also comes with a shield (or carrier board) for the CyberPi. This board adds a rechargeable battery, some RGB LEDs, a light sensor, and the ability to connect other mBot series modules.

Speaking of modules, the kit includes an ultrasonic sensor for distance measuring and obstacle avoidance, and an RGB colour sensor for line following and colour detecting. It also supports connecting two servo motors for controlling the angle of something like a set of robotic arms, and two DC motors, which you will most likely use for driving a bot around.

These DC motors have encoders in them as well, which is really great for a kit like this. This means you can tell the motor to rotate not only at a certain power level but also at a specific RPM, or precisely by a certain amount of degrees.

There are more motors and sensors available outside the kit if you have a specific project in mind, but the ones included here are probably more than enough for a typical classroom environment or a weekend project at home.

So you go through and build your kit, and maybe play around with a few of the preloaded demos on the CyberPi, but then you get to arguably the most important aspect of any robotics kit – the coding experience.

You have a few options here, but it is all going to be done through mBlock, their dedicated coding platform. You can use it through an app for mobile devices, install it on a computer, or even just access it directly through a web browser.

As a coding experience, mBlock is very pleasant to use. xTool is a laser cutting brand run by Makeblock, and one thing xTool does exceptionally well is software design, which really shows with mBlock. mBlock mainly uses a Scratch-style block coding system that you have probably seen everywhere, and it is executed incredibly well. All the usual suspects are there – your standard logic and operators – but they've also included blocks for all the CyberPi's specific hardware features.

You can easily drag and drop blocks to control the LEDs, play audio, draw faces or your own custom graphics for the screen, read the motion data of the CyberPi, connect to the internet to pull down things like weather data, and there's even a method for wirelessly sending data between multiple CyberPis, which is pretty neat. Plus, there is a purpose-built addon for each thing you can add to the kit. If you whack on the AI Camera, you can get a module for it. Connect the included Bluetooth remote control; there is also a module for it.

You can upload the code to the bot via Bluetooth or USB. We didn’t run into any issues with either method. However, a quick tip for educators: in a classroom environment, trying to send code via Bluetooth with 20 or 30 bots in a single room might get a bit chaotic, so sticking to the wired USB method might be the safer bet.

A massive side note here: that built-in screen is incredibly helpful for debugging. You can print live data straight to it – such as what joystick input the robot is receiving at that exact moment – and use that information to figure out why it isn't turning the right direction. Having that screen on the bot, on the go, is an amazing tool for getting kids into the habit of printing important data to troubleshoot issues.

Finally, you do have the option to code this entire system in Python. This really helps to extend the age suitability of the kit. Even better, mBlock lets you convert your block code directly into Python code with a single button, which is a fantastic stepping stone to help learners make that jump from visual to text-based programming.

I could keep waffling on about the coding experience, but overall, it's just really good. It's one of the standout areas where the mBot2 genuinely feels like it dips into the higher end of the robotics kit market.