500 ROBOTS is a 1 to 1 reproduction of a sketchbook that artist GABO began filling in May 2020 and finally completed in September 2020. The entire book was done straight to ink, meaning that he had little to no plan on what was going to be drawn! A lot of what you’ll find in this book will be robot sketches, but also includes a mess of random sci-fi mechanics and even a few mini-comics! The last two pages of the book explain some of the tools and techniques used while making it. Each page also includes annotations on the sides and bottom explaining my process and thoughts! This 52-page perfect-bound book is full color and measures 6″ x 4.5″.
Capture every angle from the sky with VISTA Drone, the first integrated 360-degree camera drone, from Door Robotics, which launched on Kickstarter today. Eliminating the need to jury-rig expensive cameras to gimbals and drones, VISTA Drone makes it easier than ever before to capture precise, beautiful, and captivating images from above.
No drone on the market today records 360-degree video without also capturing the drone itself in the frame. To create immersive content, aerial videographers and photographers have had to build unsafe custom rigs, attach third-party cameras or do extensive editing to capture high-quality footage. Not anymore.
VISTA Drone is the market’s first drone with a fully integrated 360-degree camera. It creates immersive aerial video without seeing the drone in every frame. In addition to its innovative design, the VISTA Drone also leverages autonomous navigation to learn, map, and adapt to any environment indoors or outdoors. Obstacle detection senses objects around the drone and keeps it from crashing during flight, letting the operator focus on getting the shot.
“I believe drone technology is the way of the future,” said Joshua Ermias, CEO of Door Robotics. “The VISTA Drone makes it significantly easier to create awe-inspiring, immersive content from every angle.”
According to Business Insider, the drone industry is expected to grow to more than $63 billion by 2025 with consumer drone shipments hitting 29 million next year. Enterprise and recreational-use drones are exploding in popularity as their uses become more widespread. From insurance to disaster relief, construction, journalism, and real estate, businesses are thirsting for ways to capture video and photographs of hard-to-reach locations or innovative viewpoints. The VISTA Drone offers what no other drone does: a 360-degree, “invisible drone” POV.
In addition to autonomous navigation, the VISTA Drone features a “follow me” intelligent flight mode that leverages GPS transmitter technology to turn the drone into a hands-free aerial camera crew. Object recognition detects small and large objects for premier pixel clarity. The VISTA Drone can take off and land on its own, creating a safer flying experience for any operator. If the battery should run low during flight, it will automatically begin to descend and return home.
The VISTA Drone’s 360-degree camera offers 8k resolution, a 78 Mbps bit rate, and captures 30 frames per second of video. Real-time video stitching is made possible with the camera’s two lenses—no more extensive editing to mend footage. VISTA Drone makes capturing 360-degree images and video automatic and precise.
VISTA Drone is available to pre-order at a significant discount starting at $899. Funds from the Kickstarter campaign will be used to manufacture the drones in America, and units will ship by April 2021. To pre-order, visit pr.go2.fund/doorrobotics.
About Door Robotics Door Robotics believes drones are the future. Beginning in 2016, Door Robotics set out to improve the way people capture aerial video with drones. A grant from the University of Maryland’s Academy for Innovation and Entrepreneurship jumpstarted Door Robotics, and the team used that funding to create its alpha prototype. After tooling, software development, and testing, the VISTA Drone is ready for manufacturing. For more information, visit http://www.doorrobotics.com.
The first maker robotics platform that uses cardboard robots to help kids to develop skills for the future at home. See: http://www.cardbots.xyz/
For immediate release – October 6th, 2020 – Cardbots is pleased to announce its launch on Kickstarter to help kids aged 8+ to develop skills for the future at home. With Cardbots, kids can make fun robots out of cardboard, a material that is abundant, recyclable and easy to work with.
Cardbots has developed a system of biodegradable plastic pieces in order to assemble cardboard without glue or tape, a robot controller with programming software and online curricula. Cardbots has created a learning experience that allows kids to empower themselves to solve problems with technology and to become Future Makers.
Cardbots was created by a team of educators, makers, engineers and designers with many years of experience in EdTech and emergent technologies. During the pandemic and the disruption of the education system, they realised that families need new educational experiences that can take place at home with a true focus on STEAM and skills that kids will need in the future.
The kit is available at www.cardbots.xyzand ships anywhere in the world with an exclusive discount on its retail price, including unlimited access to the online learning platform.
STRYK is Launching the Next Evolution of Combat Sports Training with its Unique Robotic Fighting Coach, RXT-1
Created by a U.S. Army Special Forces Veteran, the company’s innovative robot trainer is designed with four foam arms, a head target, and a torso pad option to help improve fighters‘ reaction time, mental processing speed, and hand-eye coordination.
SEATTLE, Sept. 23, 2020 /PRNewswire/ — The robots are coming to combat sports training with a new company, STRYK, https://www.strykusa.com/, launching its unique robotic fighting coach, RXT-1, promising the next evolution in fight training.
Created by a former U.S. Army Special Forces Explosives Specialist and a long-time combat sports participant, the company’s innovative RXT-1 robot is designed with four foam arms, a head target, and a torso pad option, and offers three different training mode options: Practice, Spar, and Combinations. The RXT-1 is not intended to replace human sparring partners but to complement such training through improving the users‘ reaction time, mental processing speed, and hand-eye coordination.
Think of it as man vs. machine to enable you to enhance your fighting skills. Or a sparring partner that never gets tired. The RXT-1 allows you to get in extra sparring rounds without risking injury while training at variable tempos, speeds, and attack stimuli you wouldn’t easily experience with comparable human partners.
„It’s truly a unique product. The RXT-1 strikes at fighters in a realistic yet unpredictable fashion. There has never been a striking pad system that hits back. There is only one robot fight coach in the world — RXT-1,“ said Brent Verdialez, founder and CEO of STRYK and inventor of the RXT-1. „If practiced with daily, users will notice results within a week. We offer the first physical human and robot interactive coach in the sports industry. The future of fight training is here today with our innovative robot coach.“
Top benefits of the RXT-1 include:
A human interactive training robot
Workout without feeling like its hard work
Learn to defend oneself
Improve cognitive processing, reaction time, reflexes, hand-eye coordination, memory, and visual processing speed, etc.
Get in shape
Additional RXT-1 product features include:
Ease of use anywhere – RXT-1 can be used at home, at the gym, in your garage, in a dojo, at schools, or anywhere it can be mounted indoors.
Three training modes — The RXT-1 has three training modes: Practice, Spar, and Combinations. In Practice mode, strikes are predictable and come every two seconds. In Spar mode, the robot strikes randomly according to the preselected level. In Combinations mode, RXT-1 will strike according to the combinations the user selects and the order they are selected. You can set the robot trainer to run for 1-12 rounds, and 1 to 3-minute rounds.
Adjustable speeds – Speeds for the RXT-1 can be adjusted from 20%-100%. The RXT-1 can strike up to five times a second, which means the robotic arm travels at a speed of approximately 40 mph.
Durable — As long as the body and the joints are not directly struck, the RXT-1 can potentially outlast a fighter’s career.
Affordable — When compared to costly and outdated training products currently on the market, RXT-1 is affordable and starts at $699.
Created by a former 10-year U.S. Army Special Forces Explosives Specialist and long-time combat sports participant, STRYK, https://www.strykusa.com/, is launching its unique robotic fighting coach, RXT-1, promising the next evolution in fight training.
On August 24, Petoi Bittle launches on the crowdfunding site Kickstarter. Starting from $195 for the early bird special, Bittle is the first affordable robot dog for coding and fun.
Petoi hopes to raise $50,000 to bring the agile quadruped robots to makers and STEM communities. The fund was fulfilled in one day and was doubled in three days. It reaches $128,000 on the fourth day.
Petoi Bittle is a tiny but powerful robot that can play tricks like real animals. It is compact, agile, accessible, and seamlessly designed. We fine-tuned every bit to fit agile maneuverabilities into a palm-sized robot pet. You can bring Bittle to life by assembling its puzzle-like frames, running our demo codes, and injecting new skills with your own codes. Bittle makes a perfect tool for learning, teaching, and researching, or a surprising gift to impress your family and friends.
Rz Li, the founder of Petoi, explains: „Building on the success of our first robot cat project Petoi Nybble on Indiegogo in 2018 and feedback from our worldwide user community, we’ve designed Bittle to be more durable, agile and extensible. Bittle moves with four legs rather than wheels. Legged motion gives it more freedom to navigate unstructured terrains, and expresses the joy of life whenever it moves. Such dynamic maneuverability and behaviors were only seen on a few luxury robots from the best labs or tycoon companies previously. „
Evolving with an open-source gene, Bittle is an open platform to fuse multiple makers‘ gadgets into one organic system. With our customized Arduino board coordinating all instinctive and sophisticated movements, you are free to clip on various sensors to bring in perception and inject artificial intelligence capabilities. You could also mount a Raspberry Pi or other AI chips through wired/wireless connections for higher-level functionalities.
Bittle is a compact system of five major components: body frame, actuator, electronics, battery, and the software to coordinate all the hardware to perform varied tasks. More details are covered on their Kickstarter page.
Deliverables: Plastic body parts 10× P1S Servo Rechargeable 7.4V Li-ion battery pack NyBoard V1 Bluetooth and WiFi dongle Various sensors that can be held by the mouth of the robot dog Open-source software: the OpenCat program
The kit starts at $195 for the Early Bird adopters. For more information, please visit Petoi’s website.
About Petoi LLC OpenCat started as the founder Rz Li’s pet project in 2016. After the demo video went viral in 2018, he devoted all his time and resources to bring this sophisticated and cute robot to the public. He founded Petoi and successfully crowdfunded the Nybble project in 2018. All the earnings have been put into the fulfillment of Nybble and the R&D of Bittle. Our mission is to bring affordable robotic pets from fiction to reality. We grew from a single maker to a company that can collaborate and negotiate with manufacturers to get the best solutions to our needs. We have many more cool ideas in mind, and Bittle is another small step towards our ideal shape of household robots.
Japanese hardware startup “Vanguard Industries, Inc.” launches its newly developed AI Pet Robot that is not only soft and cuddly and interactive, but learns and evolves like a real pet.
Tokyo based Vanguard Industries, Inc (CEO: Masahiko Yamanaka) will launch a Kickstarter campaign on August 5th, 8:00pm (Japan Time) for its advanced AI Pet Robot MOFLIN that realizes an ambitious concept of creating a soft and lovable AI pet robot that can interact with its owner and evolve like a living animal. It can thus give you the satisfaction of living with a pet that has its own unique personality cultivated by its interaction with you and its living environment.
Supporters of the campaign can make advanced purchases of MOFLIN. The campaign targets consumers in the US, Canada, the EU, and Japan. The funds raised through this campaign will be used for further product development, manufacturing, delivery, and preparation for entering the consumer market.
Delivery of MOFLIN to supporters will start in Spring of 2021.
What is MOFLIN
MOFLIN was created from an entirely new and ambitious concept of a having a soft lovable pet robot with advanced Artificial Intelligence (AI) that enables it to learn, evolve, interact, and create its own unique personality like that of a living pet. It has a soft warm fur coat, makes lovable sounds and adorable movements that will make you want to love it forever. We took a nature inspired approach and developed a unique algorithm that allows MOFLIN to learn and grow by constantly using its interactions to determine patterns and evaluate its surroundings from its sensors. MOFLIN will choose from an infinite number of mobile and sound pattern combinations to respond and express its feelings. To put it in simple terms, it’s like you’re interacting with a living pet. MOFLIN offers a simple user experience that can be enjoyed by a wide range of ages and provide a lovable partner to your everyday life.
In November 2011 Vanguard Industries presented for the first time, the MOFLIN concept, at the Web Summit 2019 that took place in Lisbon, Portugal. Web Summit is one of the world’s largest technology conferences and the live demonstration of the MOFLIN prototype received raving feedback from industry professionals. Through the success of this Kickstarter campaign, we plan on developing MOFLIN even further.
Also, in parallel with this Kickstarter campaign, we will be exhibiting MOFLIN at the b8ta Tokyo – Yurakucho store in Tokyo, the first experiential store in Japan for b8ta. If you are ever in the area, please come and interact with MOFLIN in person.
Name: b8ta Tokyo – Yurakucho Address: 1st Floor, Yuracho Denki Building, 1-7-1, Yurakucho, Chiyoda-Ku, Tokyo, Japan Business Hours: 11:00 – 19:30 (7 days a week) URL: https://b8ta.jp/
Vanguard Industries, Inc.
Established in June, 2016, Vanguard Industries is a hardware startup that work mainly with Industry-Government-Acadamia open innovation projects. It specializes in the engineering, production, and market entry of innovative products created by partnerships between the R&D departments of large Japanese firms, small and medium sized manufacturing companies, and Universities. Our mission is to create innovation that contributes to the advancement of the Japanese manufacturing industry.
The Quantum platform gives electronic enthusiasts, educators and developers total control of their IoT network. Built for novices and experts alike, anyone can control anything from a remote temperature sensor to an automated home and even robots with ease.
SANTA BARBARA, Calif., July 28, 2020 (Newswire.com) – Quantum Integration is announcing the launch of its Kickstarter campaign for the Quantum platform, beginning Tuesday, July 28, 2020.
Built from the ground up with a complete set of hardware and software, the Quantum platform allows anyone to build custom plug-and-play IoT devices that easily communicate with each other any way the user desires. With a graphical user interface for creating custom firmware for IoT devices and the applications that control them, programming is not required.
“We’re incredibly excited to open up this kind of technology to the mainstream,” says Michael Barnick, CEO and founder of Quantum Integration. “Hobby electronics and the IoT space in general can be intimidating for some, and platforms require a degree of programming knowledge. Our platform’s features like the drag-and-drop App Builder and automated Firmware Generator make developing complex projects simple, and users easily create and take on their own projects in record time.”
With a goal of $25,000, the Kickstarter campaign will run from July 28, 2020, to Aug. 31, 2020. Products will be ready to ship in September 2020.
Backers can choose from a variety of pledges, which are:
The Q-Server Central Core – The heart and power of the IoT platform which provides complete control of the entire IoT network.
Q-Client Builder Base – The easiest way for users to build their own custom IoT devices; can add virtually any sensor or device to the network.
Starter Kit – A wide variety of electronic components ready for immediate use on the Quantum IoT platform.
Limited quantities at an incredible discount are available for early backers. For more information and to become a backer, visit the Quantum Kickstarter campaign.
About Quantum Integration Inc.
The Quantum IoT platform enables electronics hobbyists to create wireless devices from a simple button to complete home automation and robots, and control it with custom apps and firmware without coding, all through a central server. The power of making!
London, England – July 21st 2020 – The Crafty Robot today launches Smartipresence, a low cost telepresence robot that works with a smartphone, based on their Smartibot robotics platform. Created by product designer Ross Atkin, Smartipresence kits are available for pre-order on Kickstarter from £50 ($62).
Smartipresence builds on top of the existing Smartibot app-connected cardboard robot platform, adding extra components to create a dedicated telepresence robot. Slide a phone into the cradle, put the robot online then send a loved one a link to the pilot webpage allowing them to appear on-screen just like a video call, except they have the additional ability to move themselves around. Using controls on the pilot page your friends and family members can drive forward, backwards, left and right and they can tilt the phone to look up or down.
Smartipresence comes as a kit combining cleverly designed cardboard parts with re-usable electronics, allowing owners to build their own telepresence robots by hacking battery operated toys, using LEGO, radio controlled vehicles or 3D printers.
“It’s awful not being able to visit loved ones right now and I wanted to make something to help” explained Ross Atkin. “I thought telepresence might be useful, but not the robots designed for corporate environments that cost thousands. I realised that the Smartibot kit already had most of the parts you’d need to make a really accessible telepresence robot that would work in people’s homes. So I designed the extra cardboard parts to make the experience as good as it could be, and worked with Altrubots to put together the software. It’s turned out great. It’s not quite as good as actually being somewhere but it’s a whole lot better than a video call.”
As Smartipresence is an expansion for the Smartibot the kit, it also includes everything from the previous set, including parts to make the A.I. bot, Unicorn and Teabot. The kit includes 10 hours of telepresence using Smartipresence service with additional 10 hour usage codes available at £5 each. There are no accounts and the system collects no personal information from users.
The telepresence system has been created in partnership with Altrubots, creators of the ‘RC Everywhere’ system used in publicly controllable robots that perform helpful functions like trash collection.
John Stewart, Altrubots software lead, said “It’s amazing to be creating a world wide communication system that’s going to allow normal people to use robots to communicate, it’s the closest thing to Princess Lea coming out of the R2D2 that we’re going to get right now.”
Smartibot Technical Specs
Kit contents
Hardware Features
Software Features
1 x Smartibot Circuit Board3 x DC Motors + Gearboxes1 x 4AA Battery Box1 x Cardboard Smartipresence Parts1 x Cardboard A.I. Bot Parts1 x Cardboard Unicorn Parts1 x Cardboard Teabot Parts2 x Glass Marbles2 x ScrewdriversStainless Steel Fixings Rubber Bands
Robot can move forward and back, rotate and tilt the phone to look up or down NRF 52 series ARM Cortex-M4F based Bluetooth system-on-chip Espruino runtime USB/Bluetooth programming
Smartipresence system comprising pilot webapp and robot iOS app and webapp iOS and Android app for remote control mode and A.I. mode (YOLO A.I.) Programmable with JavaScript or code blocks from a web browser using Espruino
Smartibot can be found on Kickstarter starting at £50 ($63) for a limited time.
Makers can create custom apps and firmware without coding through a simple graphic UI and control any wireless device through a central server within the Quantum IoT Platform.
SANTA BARBARA, Calif., June 25, 2020 (Newswire.com) – Frustrated with Arduino’s limitations and a desire to wirelessly automate devices in the home, Michael Barnick, 58, founded Quantum Integration to bring a new level of integration and IoT to home automation enthusiasts. With his background in computer engineering, including management at Apple Computer, and as an experienced tech startup entrepreneur, he decided to change the industry and finally making it easy for electronics hobbyists to make and manage their very own IoT networks.
“Single-use IoT devices like ‘Nest’ are no longer enough for those wanting more control. The Quantum IoT platform is unique in that it allows easy integration of any number and type of device. It’s plug-and-play from beginning to end and designed for novices and experts alike,“ said Mr. Barnick. “It is now easier than ever to build custom automation projects from using remote temperature sensors, lighting control, security systems, entire high-end home automation, and even robots. The only limit is your imagination!”
Quantum Integration is a California-based corporation founded in 2017, specializing in IoT platforms and devices. Their products include servers, wireless IoT devices and their own proprietary operating system.
They also offer a Starter Bundle that includes a Q-Server and two Builder Bases for only $249, which provides a complete IoT platform, enabling anyone to build sophisticated and purposeful projects.
Hardware products will be available for a discounted purchase price on Kickstarter, starting mid-July 2020, and will later be available from online resellers or directly at quantumintegrate.com, beginning mid-August 2020.
“Using the Quantum IoT Platform, I was able to do in minutes what would have taken days on Arduino. If you’re an electronics hobbyist or enthusiast with a love for wireless devices, the Quantum IoT Platform is for you!” said Joeran Kinzel, Co-Founder.
Quantum Integration delivers a user-friendly IoT platform that empowers electronics enthusiasts and hobbyists to build high tech projects from a simple button to home automation and robots. Leveraging the combination of multiple Q-Client Builder Bases, Q-Servers and a straightforward developer environment, users can write apps and create custom firmware without coding. Quantum Integration provides a superior experience in the home. The company’s platform eliminates the barriers prohibiting adoption of home automation, making it the new standard for convenience. The key to accomplishing this is the company’s unique platform designed specifically for a wide range of low-cost Bluetooth devices. Quantum Integration also provides a graphic based development environment that allows fast and easy control of any custom device. Along with a smart plug-and-play feature, users can add and use devices on the network in a matter of seconds, at a price point and scalability unmatched by any of the competitions in the sphere.
Technology has become an integral part of our lives, but just a small number of people on the planet actually have the tools, access, or knowledge to create new technology. CircuitMess is here to change that with the STEM Box .
CircuitMess STEM Box is a unique learning experience that will teach you the skills of the future. Autonomous driving, Sound synthesis, Voice Recognition, Wireless communication, Gaming, and Machine learning – these are just some of the topics you’ll learn about with STEM Box. Every three months, you’ll get a new interesting product based on a different topic delivered at your doorstep.
CircuitMess announced the following 6 products that will be a part of the STEM Box:
● Spencer – a codeable DIY voice assistant similar to Amazon Alexa that will show you the technology behind speech recognition and AI
● Jay-D – a DJ Mixtable that will teach you how sound synthesis works
● Wheelson – a DIY robot car that will show you how autonomous vehicles work
● ByteBoi – a build-it-yourself game console that will explain what video game engineering is and how microcomputers work
● Chatter – CircuitMess’s unique communication devices that will teach you about wireless communication
● Clockstar – a machine-learning -powered smartwatch
STEM Box’s Kickstarter campaign is launching on Monday, June 29th 2020 with a goal of 15.000,00 USD The estimated delivery date for the first STEM Box is November 2020. (Just in time for Christmas!)
Third Kickstarter project for a Croatian ed-tech startup
This is CircuitMess’s third crowdfunding campaign, following two very successful ones. CircuitMess started with a Kickstarter campaign for MAKERbuino – a DIY game console. The first campaign raised more than $100,000, followed by a Kickstarter for MAKERphone – a DIY mobile phone that raised more than $300,000 in 2018.
Since then, CircuitMess has delivered more than 15,000 devices to customers all around the globe.
“We’ve figured out that our customers really like our work and want to learn even more. That’s why we decided to create the STEM Box. I am really proud of our Trustpilot page where we invite all of our customers to post honest and unfiltered reviews”, says Albert Gajšak, the CEO of CircuitMess.
About CircuitMess
CircuitMess is a technology startup founded in Karlovac, Croatia in 2017 by Albert Gajšak and Tomislav Car after a successful Kickstarter campaign for MAKERbuino. Currently, CircuitMess is employing 15 young ambitious people and have recently moved to a new office in Croatia’s capital, Zagreb, in search for more smart people that will help them create new electronic products and bring technology to the crowd in a fun and interesting way.
