T’puram: In a bid to further enhance robotics education in schools, the Kerala Infrastructure and Technology for Education (KITE), the technology wing of the general education department, has invited tenders for 5,000 advanced robotic kits.

These kits are intended for distribution to all high schools with active Little KITEs units. KITE previously made 29,000 robotic kits, which included about 15 components available to all high schools. From this academic year, robotics became part of the ICT curriculum for more than 4 lakh Class X students.

The new advanced robotic kits, which help in building Internet of Things (IoT) devices, are a continuation of this initiative.

The pre-bid meeting concluded on Monday. “The enthusiasm shown by students and teachers for our robotics curriculum has been overwhelming. This new tender for advanced kits is a direct response to that success and it underscores our commitment to providing students with the tools they need to become future innovators and engineers. We are expecting to roll out the new Little KITEs curriculum by including the advanced kit by Dec 2025,” said K Anvar Sadath, chief executive officer.

The new kits represent a significant upgrade, featuring powerful components designed to empower students to build more complex and innovative projects. Key features of the new kits include an ESP32 Devkit v1 board, which serves as a microcontroller, along with a wide array of sensors, including ultrasonic distance, soil moisture, PIR motion and line-tracking sensors.

Students will also receive a 4WD Smart Car chassis kit, a submersible mini water pump and a rechargeable Li-ion battery pack, enabling them to create a diverse range of models.

This initiative is aimed at fostering problem-solving skills and hands-on learning. The advanced components will allow students to create sophisticated projects such as Rover Robot (Line Follower, Obstacle Avoider), automatic plant watering systems, motion-activated security systems, Blind Assistive Walking Stick, Intelligent

Energy Saving Device, Air Quality Checker, Anti-Theft System, Mini Weather Monitoring System, etc. In addition to preparing various projects, the kits will help students learn about electronic circuits, troubleshoot them and perform programming using block coding, Python and C.