Building or programming robots may sound like a lot of fun, but most people probably have no idea where to start. Well, all that is about to change, courtesy of Sparki.
Who is Sparki, you ask? Well, Sparki – who currently resides on Kickstarter – can best be described as an Arduino-powered robot.
The brainchild of ArcRobotics, Sparki is an ideal little robotic pal for children because he doesn’t even have to assembled. Indeed, Sparki comes out-of-the-box ready to play and interact. However, you can create additional functionality for the robot by using an included remote control and programming actions via a software interface.
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The project is seeking $60,000 for development with 29 days to go. So far, it has raised about $14,000. The company plans to sell the Sparki robot kits for $99 each. Currently, the company is estimating that backers who purchased via Kickstarter will receive their robot in October.
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Subsequently, ArcRobotics plans to release designs for Sparki to the public to allow anyone to build a robot via a DIY kit. The people behind the project have added some interesting stretch goals if the project raises $100,000, $200,000, or $300,000, including the ability to control the robot via Bluetooth, a wireless radio allowing it to communicate with other Sparki robots, and easy-to-use drag-and-drop block programming.
“To write your own programs, just plug it in via USB, install the custom-enhanced Arduino software and try any of the dozens of example programs,” an ArcRobotics rep wrote in a recent blog post. “We have programs for every sensor and actuator on Sparki.”