The current health scare has prompted many parents to rethink their children's learning habits and after-school activities. Although most schools continue to operate normally, many parents have put a temporary halt to some of their kids' usual activities in an effort to keep them safe and healthy. These include after-school sports clubs and learning programs. As a result, children are now spending all their free time in their homes. Making changes in your children's studying methods and after-school activities, though, does not mean that they experience a learning slide and spend their free time doing nothing productive.

Welcome to the voting for the Audience Choice Demo from HRI 2020. You can see the video and abstract from each demo here, with voting at the bottom. You can also register for the Online HRI 2020 Demo Discussion and Award Presentation on May 21 4:00 PM BST. Abstract: There are many challenges when it comes to deploying robots remotely including lack of situation awareness for the operator, which can lead to decreased trust and lack of adoption. For this demonstration, delegates interact with a social robot who acts as a facilitator and mediator between them and the remote robots running a mission in a realistic simulator. We will demonstrate how such a robot can use spoken interaction and social cues to facilitate teaming between itself, the operator and the remote robots.

Sphero knows how to make STEM programming fun, and the company's latest robotics kits are no exception. Kids can find their STEM inspiration through sports using the new soccer-themed robotic kit, which contains a mini robotic ball that looks just like a soccer ball. Sphero also is releasing a comprehensive mini kit with a variety of miniatures that kids can use to create obstacle courses, games, and more. With price tags under $100, these two robotic kits are bound to be a hit among kids and parents alike. Sphero's second mini kit, Sphero Mini soccer, is inspired by the sport of soccer.

NEW YORK - Danish toymaker Lego Group has unveiled a new robotics kit that encourages students to gain programming skills through collaborative, hands-on activities. Each set of the Spike Prime kit comes with over 500 pieces, for building a variety of creations, and is paired with lesson plans for both students and teachers. It also comes with an app that uses a drag-and-drop programming language. One of the models, called "Rain or Shine," is programmed to get data from a weather service, which then instructs a Lego robot to move its umbrella or sunglasses based on whether it is raining or sunny in a particular city. "Our intention is that every child in middle school should be able to have a very solid and valuable STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, Math) learning experience and ultimately to build that confidence," said Esben Staerk Joergensen, president of Lego Education.

Help is at hand for troops on the front lines thanks to palm-sized drones developed by the the Ministry of Defence (MOD). British Army plans will see 200 miniature drones'smaller than a human hand' deployed on the battlefield to provide soldiers with an eye in the sky. These mini-drones, dubbed Black Hornet, could take over the life-threatening surveillance and reconnaissance duties currently undertaken by soldiers. The MOD is investing £66million ($87m) in robotic systems, which will also include automated supply delivery drones. TheBlack Hornet3 is the world's smallest tactical nano UAV (unmanned Aerial vehicle) and is used by the British military on the front line.

From Vincross, the folks who brought you the HEXA robot, is a new Kickstarter for MIND KIT, a modular robotics development platform that you can use to build that robot that you've always wanted but doesn't exist yet. "A robot that keeps hugging you and won't leave you alone" is either the best thing ever, or a horror movie. Worth the risk, I'd say. It's nice that the system is so modular, and also that it looks like there's a strong emphasis on manipulation, which you don't always get from robotics kits that tend to be primarily mobile bases and not much else out of the box. There's also some built-in functionality, like map-making that works with the mobile base and lidar module. Specs-wise, the brain module contains a quad-core 1.2 GHz processor with 2 GB of RAM and 8 GB of storage.

Britain will not develop Terminator-style machines which can kill without human command because they are unethical, the chief scientist at the Ministry of Defence said. Countries worldwide are in a new arms race to develop lethal autonomous weapons (LAWS) which can kill in a war zone without a person having to push a button. But this has sparked major fears that some countries could develop a fleet of killer robots which are not reined in by humans. Simon Cholerton, the MoD's chief scientific adviser, has revealed that Britain is'doing no work and has no plans to develop fully automated weapons'. He said that Britain will snub the new technological field even if the UK's Armed Forces are put at a disadvantage on the battlefield, because it is immoral.

If you got excited for the Women of NASA and Saturn V rocket Lego sets, you'll dig this new offering from the building brick company from Denmark. Lego's education arm just announced two new robotic kits that can be used in the First Lego League series of robotics competitions, the Mission Moon and Into Orbit sets were designed in partnership with astronauts and space experts to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Lego league itself. The new robotics kits fit right into Lego League Jr. and Lego League Mindstorms systems, which are made to help kids explore their science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) skills. The Mission Moon challenge will reach over 86,000 students ages 6 to 10 from 41 countries around the globe, while the Into Orbit Challenge will offer more than 280,000 kids from age 9 to 16 in almost 90 different countries. The younger kids will build the space-themed model and use Lego's WeDo software to make it move, while the older students will design, build and code the more advanced Mindstorms robot to complete multi-step missions on a playing field.

This post was done in partnership with Wirecutter, reviews for the real world. When readers choose to buy Wirecutter's independently chosen editorial picks, it may earn affiliate commissions that support its work. After spending 35 hours researching and testing seven of the best kits for learning robotics, we found the Lego Boost to be the best kit for most beginners. With its Lego-based design, built-in sensors, and the most expansive set of options for creativity and personalization, it was the most fun to build with. And the streamlined tablet app's user-friendly instructions and super-simple programming made it the easiest to learn of any of the kits we tried.

Here's a depressing number for you: 12. Just 12 percent of engineers in the United States are women. In computing it's a bit better, where women make up 26 percent of the workforce--but that number has actually fallen from 35 percent in 1990. The United States has a serious problem with getting women into STEM jobs and keeping them there. Silicon Valley and other employers bear the most responsibility for that: Discrimination, both overt and subtle, works to keep women out of the workforce. But this society of ours also perpetuates gender stereotypes, which parents pass on to their kids.