The link between coding and robotics is growing, as robots become increasingly automated. This means that youngsters can learn skills in both disciplines at once, with the combined effects producing the robotic innovations of the future.

An example of how far young people can go in this field was recently highlighted by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in California, which hosted a competition for high school robot engineers.

The competition involved a game called Reefscape in which teams of robots would compete with each other to build coral ‘reefs’ using PVC pipe and rubber balls, which they would try to accumulate at the expense of the other team. This was also a contact sport, where robots would be knocking into each other.

JPL provides grants to school teams around the state to develop their robots and play in these competitions, with all the atmosphere of a high school sports event featuring cheerleaders, music and choreographed dancing.

While some of that may be a typically American approach, the event demonstrates the fun that can be had with robots in a simple setting, with some of those taking part no doubt having ambitions of working in the robotics sector in the future to help provide practical solutions to common problems.

It should not just be kids who happen to grow up near the JPL laboratories who get the chance to enjoy robotics and coding, however. Coding and robotics classes here in England will create lots of opportunities for fun today and potentially careers in the future.

The enjoyment that robot-based games can bring here in the UK has previously been highlighted by the TV show Robot Wars, in which remote-controlled home-made robots would fight each other, often leading to scenes of mechanical carnage.

However, the next generation of robots may be a lot more sophisticated than these, without some robots ending up as piles of scrap metal.