The smart and cute Little Robot Friends are searching for your attention on Kickstarter with more sensors, new features and even more cuteness. The robots are compatible with Arduino and can be easily customized from iOS and Android mobile apps. They are highly interactive and are ideal for STEM education being instantly appealing to kids who can learn about electronics and programming simply by playing and having fun.
The cute electronic characters were created by Canadian company Aesthetec Studio and the first generation hit the market in 2014. Along the revised Curvy, Spikey and Ghosty comes Crafty — a new character geared towards rapid prototyping of new robots.
There have been many changes with respect to the original LRFs. All of these little robots are now sporting a more powerful 32-bit ARM Cortex-M0 running at 48MHz and benefit from a more sleeker design which integrates all the necessary hardware and battery.
They are equipped with RGB LED eyes, multiple touch sensors, an accelerometer, a light sensor and of course a microphone and speaker. Robots now communicate between themselves or to mobile devices via Bluetooth LE 4.0 and also have an integrated micro-USB port for connecting to a computer and recharging the Li-Po battery.
The little robots come fully assembled and are ready to play right out of the box. They react to touch gestures according to their personality, can sing songs, react to noise and even to movement. Touch gestures can also initiate connections and movement detected by the accelerometer can wake them up or put them to sleep.
Gestures and personality can be customized on-the-fly from the iOS, Android and even Chrome apps. The robots are fully programmable via Arduino or Blockly enabling complete access over the robot’s functionality. The revised Arduino library includes new functions and examples for getting started in no time.
There is also an option DIY kits if you want to assemble them yourself. The Crafty kit allows for even more freedom in this aspect letting you choose the final design of the robot or add more components to it. This one can be assembled even without soldering.
For as little as US $60 early bird pledge you can get your own Little Robot Friend and start playing right away, while US $80 will get you a Crafty kit containing all sensors and hardware, as well as a set of alligator clips for quickly prototyping your ideas. Head to the campaign page for more pledges and information.
