Schlagwort-Archive: Kickstarter

All new Little Robot Friends Wrap STEM Principles in a Tiny, Adorable package

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Launched this morning on Kickstarter, Little Robot Friends (LRF) are an exciting addition to any modern learning environment. Cute and programmable, these robotic characters serve as a novel entry-point for learning code and electronics along with crucial STEM/STEAM skills.

Geared towards children aged 8 and up, LRF’s are available in 4 models – Spikey, Curvy,
Ghosty and the all new Crafty. Each model features a distinctly shaped body, various
sensing modules and a unique, customizable personality. Spikey, Curvy and Ghosty are
available pre-assembled or as DIY kits for those looking to build their soldering skills. Crafty comes as a kit with all the same components as the other robots, but those components are modular and reusable. This provides an endless combination of interaction possibilities for modelling STEAM topics. Little Robot Friends characters evolve organically through play or can be customizable through coding.

Children can transform Crafty into custom creations with any conductive material such as
alligator clips, wire or using conductive thread or yarn. The kit opens up the potential for
children to create an LRF in a myriad of materials including paper craft, felt or 3D-printed
objects. Little Robot Friends bridges the gap between the technical and non-technical skills in a playful way by utilizing soft skills such as teamwork, collaboration and critical thinking.

Little Robot Friends purpose extends beyond physical play. Students and instructors can
also program LRF across several platforms, each suitable for a different skill level. The LRF App introduces programming concepts without the need for coding. Through the app,
children can upload tricks to their robot, customize its personality, teach it to sing robot
songs and play games. In the Little Robot Friends visual programming language, beginner
coders can use drag-and-drop elements to create and run functional programs for the
robot. As students become more confident in their programming, they can move on to
using the LRF library for Arduino. Each of these platforms introduce children to computer
programming in a creative, exploratory way and help them build a solid foundation in
computational thinking. This will put them at a huge advantage to becoming effective
problem solvers in a increasingly technology-dependent world.

Integrating computer literacy into the curriculum is a vital issue in modern education. Little
Robot Friends provides illustrative educational materials meant for both classroom learning and individual exploration. Instructors are aided by the easy-to-follow lessons plans that support core curricular items such as math, science and language arts. The robots friendly persona and tactile design encourages experiential learning, either independently or in groups. Little Robot Friends have been designed to facilitate learning across subjects and disciples to make technology more accessible and fun.

“We feel the best way to teach technology is to make learning casual and rewarding” says
Mark Argo, founder and principal technologist at Aesthetec Studio. “Developing characters
and stories is common across all ages and cultures. With Little Robot Friends we encourage children to creatively experiment with technology to make their characters expressive and unique.”

Little Robot Friends can be purchased on the campaign website until May 27th, 2016 at
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/aesthetec/all-new-little-robot-friends

Kamibot Programmable Papercraft Robot Launches on Kickstarter

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Daegu, Korea – February 16, 2016 – Kamibot, the first robot that makes learning to code truly fun for kids (and kidults), will launch on Kickstarter on Tuesday, February 16.

Kamibot is a cute, programmable edtech robot, about the size of a coffee mug. It is based around Arduino, so kids can easily program it by using a drag-and-drop programming language like Scratch. The programming skills kids learn with Kamibot are easily transferrable to real-world applications.

“Unless we make programming fun, kids are never going to stick with it,” said Alvin Chae, co-founder and CEO of 3.14, the company that makes Kamibot. “That’s why we put so much effort into the fun elements of Kamibot, creating colorful papercraft skins that let kids dress up Kamibot, and included the ability to control Kamibot with a smartphone or tablet.”

Papercraft Skins

Kami (紙) is the Japanese word for paper, and is at the root of the word origami (折り紙), literally folding paper. The Kamibot team have already created about half a dozen unique papercraft skins that kids can print out, color, and fold to customize Kamibot and give it character. These include The Count, Frankenstein’s monster, a warrior robot, a tank and a missile launcher tank. The company is also working on striking licensing deals for popular cartoon characters.

Hardware

While Kamibot is undeniably fun to play with, it also packs some serious hardware. It’s brain is an Arduino compatible board, based on the open-source standard widely used by the maker community around the world. It also includes front-facing ultrasonic sensors that help it recognize and avoid obstacles and navigate through mazes or around a room. Downward-facing IR sensors allow Kamibot recognize and race along a black line on the floor. DC motors power the wheels, and a servo motor allows the heads of the papercraft characters to rotate from side-to-side. Color changing LEDs brighten up Kamibot and make it even more colorful.

Programming Kamibot

Kids can program Kamibot to follow complex courses and do complex actions, using all of its motors and sensors. One example of how to program Kamibot is a treasure hunt. Kids can set up a table-sized treasure hunt map that includes obstacles like plastic alligators and a treasure chest. Then, using Scratch, kids can program Kamibot to wind its way through the course toward the treasure chest. Several programming project plans, including the treasure hunt, are included with Kamibot. Others will be released on the company’s website in the future. Kamibot can be programmed wirelessly via Bluetooth or while plugged in via micro-USB.

Launching on Kickstarter

Throughout 2015, Kamibot was tested in Korean classrooms and earned high marks both from students aged 10 to 17, and their teachers. Now Kamibot is ready to launch on Kickstarter on Tuesday, February 16 at 7:00 a.m. EST. Super earlybird prices start at $79 plus shipping. Pre-orders close after 30 days and Kamibot will ship to backers in June. For more information, visit Kickstarter and search for Kamibot.

InnoTechnix is Launching an Arduino Maximo Robot Arm on Kickstarter

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Montreal, Canada, February 10 2016 — InnoTechnix is pleased to announce the launch of its new crowdfunding campaign for the Maximo Robot Arm on Kickstarter:https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/itnx/maximo-robot-arm

The Arduino robotic arm will look and act great on any desktop! Maximo is an Arduino-driven, 5-axis robotic arm with a laser-cut acrylic body. The robot comes with Robotic Studio software and can be controlled using a gamepad. Maximo will also play through a series of recorded steps, executing complex automations. Only a screwdriver is required for the assembly or it can be sent fully assembled.

Another great advantage of Maximo’s design is the head of the arm, which can be changed within seconds for another module. The regular claw is a gripper included with each robot. A more sophisticated gripper head module allows Maximo to grab objects by applying balanced pressure. The palletizer head module is a miniature reproduction of the ones used in factories and warehouses. The pen-holder module allows various objects to be placed on Maximo’s head (pen, laser pointer, drumstick, etc.).

The campaign offers many add-ons like the Webcam Attachment (includes a hi-res webcam with mounting system), Phidgets Board, LED lighting system. Regularly priced at just USD$349, with Early Bird pricing at USD$290 for the first 200 lucky owners. Following the Kickstarter campaign, the MSRP will be USD$399

Follow Maximo on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/InnoTechnix and Twitter at https://twitter.com/innotechnix – hashtag #MaximoRobotArm For more information, please visit our website: http://www.itnx.com/

About InnoTechnix: Launched in 2011, InnoTechnix inc. has developed a variety of robots, robots arm, custom gripper, talking robots, intelligent clocks and mobile robots. InnoTechnix takes care of both the design of robots, manufacture of parts and development of robotics software. InnoTechnix Robots have appeared on television shows like Dragons’ Den, Mr. Net, Main Entrance, Cogéco TV and a television commercial for the Ford Focus.

Aijia Pro Receives Tremendous Support for Second Generation Smart Robot

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SYDNEY, Australia – February 19, 2016 – Delong Tech Company has revolutionized the technology industry with Aijia Pro – their second generation smart robot. The first generation robot received over $2 million in crowdfunding support in 2015. Now loyal fans are excited to become backers in the release of the Aijia Pro robot. The company’s latest Kickstarter campaign has reached over 160% of their funding goal of $7,098.  

Aijia Pro is the first telemonitoring/video robot with a colorful facial expression and many smart functioning capabilities that offer a personal touch that every household deserves. The robot can have voice conversations with anyone in Chinese or English, offer a 360 degrees‘ head rotating monitor, has an alert mode for home security, one-click photo and video capability, and much more. The device has Bluetooth capability so users can remotely control the robot with their phone. Aijia Pro also has a convenient wireless automatic charging version, which is very useful when no one is at home and the robot needs to charge to protect the house. It is a light and compact robot that is 9.46 inches wide, 26.56 inches tall, and 13.75 inches in diameter.

To make a contribution to this campaign, visit the Kickstarter campaign or click here. Perks will be delivered by September 2016. Rewards range from t-shirts to early-bird discount specials for the robot.  

Share this incredible campaign on Facebook, Twitter, and other social networks. The more people know about this, the more support the campaign will receive!

About Delong Tech Company

Delong Tech company team consists of more than 30 doctors, masters, engineers, research and development team. The AIJIA project aims to partner with every family and protect family members all over the world. The second generation robot focuses on improving home security monitoring that is safe and approved by CE and FCC. In the future, the company plans to improve home healthcare for families with the third generation Aijia robot.

CoDrone: The Drone That Anyone Can Learn to Program

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San Diego, CA – On January 6th, Robolink, Inc. launched a Kickstarter campaign for the CoDrone, a drone that anyone can learn to program and fly.

Drone-lovers of all ages can program the CoDrone to follow people, engage in laser-tag battles, go bowling (with the drone as the bowling ball!), fly in customized patterns, follow waypoints, navigate mazes and more. Robolink is creating a series of step-by-step video tutorials to teach beginners how to code all of these basic tasks. But with the six different sensors (Onboard Camera, Gyro, Accelerometer, etc) in the CoDrone combined with the ability to easily program its behavior, the possibilities are endless.

Robolink developed the CoDrone to further their mission of inspiring kids and adults to explore coding, engineering and robotics. Hansol Hong, Robolink’s CEO, says, “Programming can be tedious to learn. But when a few minutes of coding can put a drone in the sky, programming brings a smile to everyone’s face!”

The Codrone kit will retail for $179, but will go for $139 during the Kickstarter campaign and as little as $119 for the first backers. The kit includes everything needed to build and fly the drone. To program the Codrone, all that is required is a computer.

Entrepreneur turning hobby into novelty toy and apparel company

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GREENSBORO, NC — After graduating from college, designer and maker, Charles Wade, began his hobby by making unique animal stickers, which later morphed into woodcraft and papercraft creations. During a test for one of his woodcrafts he designed and built a poseable wooden robot. The Helper Bot was born.

With the creation of the Helper Bot, Wade began experimenting with other ideas. After receiving feedback and appreciation for his work, he created more robots and designed assembly kits that would allow others to build his creations.

Wade has cultivated his hobby into a career by establishing RoboMustache; a collection of wooden robot assembly kits, accessories and merchandise. More than a collection of novelties, the RoboMustache hints at a rich world of storytelling as well. Coined from a found project in a derelict factory, as the company grows, so will the RoboMustache universe. The story will expand to tell more about the existing robots and bring in new robots along the way.

Wade is crowdfunding the project to take the RoboMustache universe to the next level. The Kickstarter launched Dec. 4, 2015 and runs through the new year.

Drone or Rover – New System Lets You Decide

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Rocketship Systems Inc. releases BoxBotix, a new 3D printable robotics system that supports multiple configurations, including copter, plane and rover.

BoxBotix is an open source, modular robotics framework that is designed to be easy to hack, make, use and sustain. BoxBotix is the creation of Rocketship Systems Inc., a small robotics company in Fort Collins, CO.

“We run a small shop that machines robot parts, and we get a lot of calls from customers who have a new sensor or technology they want to test, but no robot to put them on,” says Coby Leuschke, President of Rocketship Systems. So for the last two years they have been designing and testing a new system to meet these needs. BoxBotix is the result.

Leuschke continues, “We have seen many different drone and robot systems emerge in the last year that try to meet the demands of a growing industry, but most are mass produced and difficult to customize. We wanted to create a system that allows people to move the design, build, maintenance cycle closer to the point of use, so they can control their own robot destiny. ” In order to meet these requirements BoxBotix has been designed to be built using desktop 3D printing and readily available parts and tools. Garrett Day, Rocketship Systems Lead Engineer adds, “We are releasing all of our design files under an open source license, so we can provide people the opportunity to modify the design to meet their specific needs, and help improve the overall design.”

The initial release of BoxBotix will feature robots, called BBots, which include the BBCopter, BBPlane and BBRover. Rocketship Systems will provide kits in two versions: A Bring Your Own Printer Kit, where they will provide everything needed to build a frame, excluding the printed parts, and they will also provide a Full Frame Kit that will include everything required to build the frame.

“BoxBotix is not about Rocketship Systems building a million robots. BoxBotix is about enabling a community of a million people to build their own robots,“ Leuschke concludes.

In order to fund the creation and growth of a strong open source community BoxBotix has taken to Kickstarter. To follow their project, be sure to find them on Twitter , Facebook or YouTube, and spread the word to your social media networks. Consider donating as little as $1 to help their project come to life. If you decide to donate more, you can be among the first in the world to build a BBot.

A Cute Robot That Dares to Fight: Self-balancing Robot “Gemini” Launches Kickstarter Campaign

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Gemini, a waterdrop-shaped, two-wheel, self-balancing robot with two distinct personalities, will accommodate consumers’ leisure needs more than ever before. The Gemini Kickstarter campaign launches on November 10th, 2015.

After the wild success of Makeblock, an educational robot kit series targeting makers and educators, the Shenzhen-based hardware startup Shenzhen Maker Works Technology Co., Ltd expanded its reach and designed the user-friendly smart robot Gemini, which requires no programming knowledge or assembling efforts on users’ behalf.

While standing, Gemini moves like a cute puppy, spreading joy via iridescent LED lights and flashing emoticons, and dancing to music at your command. When Gemini is equipped with a turret and crouches down, however, the robot transforms into a fearless warrior who is ready to combat.

The key to Gemini’s accurate signaling and angular actions lies in the self-balancing technology. With one MPU-6050 3-Axis Accelerometer and Gyro working with STM32 MCU, through real-time analysis of related state parameters, Gemini can minimize the displacement both vertically and horizontally, in a timely manner, and control the angular offset with the utmost accuracy, remaining level with ease.

 

Additional Features:

 

Stable Movement

The waterdrop-shaped, two-wheel, streamlined structure, empowered by the dual encoder motors with high resolution, ensures Gemini’s extraordinary agility and mobility.

 

Innovative Control Systems

Based on the free iPad app, the robot can perform complex motions and tasks with tap-and-swipe finger movements, tilting techniques (gravity control), and voice control.

 

Fluent Intercommunication

Together, the 2.4G and Wi-Fi modules offer seamless and timely communication, instantly transmitting and updating all parties’ data throughout the game.

 

High-Sensitivity LED Blue Light

Inheriting the signature Makeblock blue LED lighting, Gemini improves the transmission efficiency and undermines unstable performance from the reflection of the sun, which is often encountered by IR light-enabled devices. Overall, Gemini offers users an enhanced interactive experience.

 

Starting at USD $99.00, the team provides different bundles for buyers. “Our mission is to make an ‘Apple product’ for consumer robot kits,” says the founder and robot hobbyist Jasen Wang.

 

See Kickstarter page: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1818505613/gemini-entertainment-and-educational-robot-for-kid

PHIRO: A LEGO® compatible robot for all kids. Learn to Code in 5 ways.

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Cambridge, MA, November 2nd, 2015- Robotics Education Startup Robotix USA, LLC, lead by two sisters, Deepti Suchindran and Aditi Prasad, with a mission to inspire the innovators of tomorrow, announced today it is raising funds via a crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter to develop coding toys for kids, that makes learning to code fun and easy. The company set out to raise funds on Kickstarter to produce the first batch of their innovative robots, Phiro, that is going to change the educational robotics market. (Phiro on Kickstarter is selected as a Kickstarter ‘Staff Pick’. Link to Kickstarter http://kck.st/1SjqW7H)

Robotix has many years of experience teaching coding and robotics to several K-12 schools. They have evaluated educational robots from all over the world and found gaps. The robots are usually expensive, use proprietary programming languages and are not so fun for kids. Robotix has created Phiro, an affordable robotics & coding toy that helps kids learn to code and develop computational thinking skills. Kids can learn to code in 5 ways, either without a computer or with open-source programming languages that millions of kids use and love. Phiro is a LEGO® compatible robotics toy that kids can play, code & innovate with to develop 21st century skills.

“In today’s technology-driven and rapidly changing world, being computational thinkers to solve problems is an essential skill for children to learn. Computational thinking is a critical 21st century skill that is relevant to all fields from economics, sports, medicine, law, and engineering. Research shows that one of the most effective ways for kids, as young as 4, to learn computational thinking is through coding and robotics”- said Deepti Suchindran, PhD, CEO, Robotix USA.

“With Phiro children get to see the practical application of programmes they have created instantaneously”- said Dr. Wolfgang Slany, Professor of Computer Science & Head of the Institute for Software Technology, Graz University of Technology, Austria.

With Phiro, kids can play music, make a movie, create games, flash lights, detect faces and much more. Coding and playing with Phiro empowers and inspires kids to be creators and innovators of tomorrow.  Robotix has created two robots: Phiro Unplugged & Phiro Pro. Both robots come fully assembled and are ready to learn from & play with, right out of the box.

Phiro Unplugged for kids ages 4 to 8. Kids can learn to code & program the robot without a computer! Phiro Unplugged is a great robotic tool to learn Sequential programming and Binary Coding.

Phiro Pro for young people ages 9 to 18. Kids can program Phiro Pro with a computer, tablet or smartphone connected wirelessly via Bluetooth to Scratch 2.0 (MIT, USA), Snap4Arduino (UC Berkeley/Citilab, Spain), Pocket Code mobile apps (Graz University of Technology, Austria). Learners can connect to a community on-line enabling collaboration, sharing & learning. Phiro Pro also has all the capabilities of Phiro Unplugged.

“In one package Phiro does what a whole lot of other systems do individually so it really helps to bring all those together … and make it more cost effective for the classroom”- said Daniel Riles, Technology Integration Specialist, Brookwood School, Boston, USA.

Robotix has launched a Kickstarter campaign to raise funds to manufacture the robots for the global market, which will be ready for Kickstarter supporters in the 2nd quarter of 2016 with special Kickstarter launch prices at $99 (Phiro Unplugged) and $149 (Phiro Pro) during the campaign. Crowdfunding and detailed features of Phiro Unplugged and Phiro Pro can be found here:  www.robotixedu.com and on our Twitter at twitter.com/RobotixLS and Facebook at facebook.com/robotixedu

Personal Intelligent Robots with Android Phone and LEGO

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ELFi Robotics startup by Google Science Fair finalist Mark Drobnych is now on Kickstarter

 

28 of October 2015 – New startup ELFi Robotics based in Ukraine announced today that it is raising funds via  rewards crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter to finish the development of their revolutionary Android apps for robotic applications. The company set out to raise £33,000 on KickStarter to finish development of innovative software platform for DIY smart robots built with wide-accessible construction sets of Lego, Tetrix, Arduino and Raspberry Pi .

ELFi Robotics offers a Minimal Viable Product – Robotic Platform for learning and building intelligent robots. This platform comprises of: Brain App for Android (iOS soon), Robots, Platform Tools, RoboMarket, Training program.

ELFi Brain App is a robotic brain which can be installed on Android device and connected to LEGO EV3, Arduino or Raspberry Pi controllers. So any LEGO Robot can receive its missed brain from now on!

ELFi Educational Program covers both hardware and software aspects required to understand basics of robotics. Both aspects start from very simple patterns and don’t assume any previous experience in robotics. ELFi Robotics WorkBook and Building Instructions Book by Mark allow a quick start for any beginner.

The powerful concept of RoboMarket and “Robotics for programmers”  book allows third-party developers to write applications for ELFi Robots and even sell them.

According to Mark Drobnych, 15 years old CEO of ELFi robotics: “Our main target is to provide robots to everybody. Nowadays, real robots are really expensive and rare. I think it’s time to enter  the new era of technologies. Build your own robot, with own design, and own set of functions! Our Brain app and platform are flexible enough to support new robotics ventures.”

The story begun two years ago when 13-years old Mark Drobnych worked on his personal scientific research: School Presentation of  Microscope. The results of this work were presented at the Final of Google Science Fair 2014 in Mountain View, California. As functions of microscope started being more complex Mark had an idea to create an universal Robotic Brain on top of Android operating system. This Brain had to create human-friendly spoken interface not only for his Presentation of Microscope but for ANY ROBOTIC BODY built with Lego, Arduino, Tetrix or Raspberry Pi parts. It was ELFi birth.

To enforce his progress on software part Mark involved his dad, Oleksiy Drobnych, PhD, into the project as an experienced software engineer.

In the UK Mark is represented by Androcommerce Ltd., registered in England family firm focusing on mobile e-commerce offering.