The Edinburgh-based EdTech robotics company Robotical has secured a six-figure order for its humanoid walking robot.

In what marks the single biggest deal for Robotical since the company expanded into North America in 2021, 360 Martys – its trademark robot – have been rolled out in classrooms throughout the Capistrano Unified School District (CUSD) estate, which is the largest school district in Orange Country, California.

Pupils in CUSD’s 32 elementary schools and two new state-of-the-art STEAM labs are now learning to code with Marty, an educational humanoid walking robot.

Commenting on the order, Hal Speed, Head of North America at Robotical, said: “Marty is an extremely versatile resource that enables children from as young as four to learn to code in a fun and engaging way. And, to make it as easy as possible for educators to deliver lessons that meet success criteria, we have an online learning portal that houses extensive curriculum-mapped teaching resources.

“We are delighted that CUSD has chosen to invest in Marty as their primary STEM learning tool and, having seen Marty in action, it seems both teachers and children are all really fired up to learn with Marty.”

It was a sentiment shared by the Principle of Laguna Niguel elementary Andrea Meissner. In recounting the teacher training that Robotical delivered at the Laguna Niguel elementary – home to the new STEAM labs, she commented: “When they learned to use the robots you would have thought they were having a party. If the teachers had that much fun, I thought, so will the kids.”

Parent Burcu Cevik said that her 7-year-old first-grade son was keen to see the labs and experience the many offerings.

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“Once he saw the robots, he was so excited,” Cevik added. “He’s very good at math and science and he’ll love that he can code and program the robots.”

International from the start, over 10,000 Martys have now been sold with resellers across Europe, Africa, Asia and North and South America.

The global education technology market size was valued at USD 123.4 billion in 2022 and is expected to witness a compound annual growth rate of 12.3% from 2023 to 2030, according to Grand View Research Inc.

Marty offers a range of learning progression from unplugged and block-based programming right through to Python. The physical product is supported with teaching materials that align to national and regional curricula and complemented by learning activities that enable Marty to be integrated with other areas of the curriculum.