The mePed is a robot kit that was designed from the ground up to be an affordable, easy to build robot for beginners and experts alike.

Spierce Technologies announced today that it is raising funds via a crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter to finish development and drive down the cost of their flagship walking robot, the mePed. The company has set out to raise at least $5,000 to fund the first batch of mePed kits and give them enough orders to negotiate better pricing and make the kits more affordable for everyone.

The mePed is a four legged quadruped robot that comes in kit form which the user assembles using the included tools. Out of the box, it’s not much more than just a remote control toy but what make the mePed robot special is that it is completely open source and programmable. The source code used to make the mePed work is pre-programmed on the robots controller from the factory. This code can be modified by the user to make the robot do almost anything from navigating mazes, avoiding obstacles, dancing, waving, or even finding a fire and putting it out with the use of additional sensors.

Making low cost, high quality robot kits accessible to as many people as possible is the driving force behind the mePed Kickstarter campaign. When most walking robots cost upwards of $200 or more, with a successful Kickstarter campaign, Spierce Technologies can bring the mePed to market for less than $100.

The mePed kit includes everything needed to assemble a fully functioning, programmable robot. In addition to the robot body and servo motors, the kit include an Infrared Remote for giving the robot commands, an Ultrasonic Range Sensor for measuring the distance from objects in front of the robot, an Arduino compatible micro controller or the brains of the mePed, as well as the nuts, bolts, and wrenches needed to assemble the kit. The user only needs to supply 4 AA batteries.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1881661007/meped-the-mini- quadruped-mobile-robot