RoBe:Do Robotics - Hobby Roboticists can Now Get a Leg Up

It looks like an RC car and an eee PC had a baby. Sadly that just about wraps it up for RoBe:Do from the simplest viewpoint. These robots are controlled by eee class laptops and a 12V rechargable NiMH battery. They are completely mobile and can be equipped with any number of mechanical appendages or sensors. The site sells complete programmable bots as well as accessories that connect to the car piece or to the computer via USB. Webcams, light sensors and lever arms and gripping appendages can be found and built into your generic bot to mold to your specific tasks. Trying to show the breadth of potential for these devices one of the better videos shows one having a tasked launched remotely by twitting a command to his robot with his iPhone.

Now while the rest of video commercials are pretty terrible these actually have a ton of potential. These kits can get kids into electrical and mechanical engineering, programming and energy conservation. Having these ready made kits that get a lot of the tedious work done will greatly lower the bar for entry on the time aspect of these types of projects (although there are probably plenty cranky old guys out there complaining about all the 'character' they won't be getting). Robitics in educations is seeing a huge upsurgence in popularity in education and entertainment. BotBall and RobotWars being the most popular there are many varieties of those clubs popping up here and there. $1,649.00 is their price for the top model 'Coppa' robot.

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