Robots Archives - Serious Startups

Ro-buddy Bridges the Gap Between Raspberry Pi and All Out Hacking

The concept of robots has fascinated humans for a long time, even as far back as ancient Greek myths.

But, now, as technology advances rapidly, there are lots of people who think a robotic future is just around the corner.

The founders of Australian startup Robological fall in that camp. And they’re doing their part to usher in that future by creating Ro-buddy, a motherboard/Android app that will allow kids to quickly create their own robots, no coding required (for now).

The team is in the final days of their Indiegogo campaign. Check out our Q&A with the founder Damith Herath below.

What is your startup called?

Robological

What’s the story behind your idea?

The foundation of what would become the software framework for Ro-buddy was laid as early as 2010 when the founders worked on an Australian government (Australian Research Council) funded research program called the Thinking Head Project.

However, the Eureka moment came when we volunteered to teach robotics to primary school kids at a few local schools. In brief, the story goes like this – having been academics for sometime and partly forgotten our own childhood, we’ve gravely underestimated the creative and tech prowess of the 10 year olds we were teaching robotics – setting the bar so low, they surprised us by coming up with creative ideas for robots and wanting to create sophisticated robots of their own. Only armed with toy robots at the time, we quickly realized that these kids need something more sophisticated as a starting point, but at the same time not too complicated to dishearten them. Working on this challenge over the last year or so we realized that combining the software framework we’ve already developed (which was used by artists for creating interactive art/robot projects) in an Android App with a tightly integrated hardware platform would achieve this end goal.

The combination of an App and the hardware enables anyone to build custom control interfaces using a drag-n-drop interface on an Android device without writing a single line of code. In addition our hardware could directly interface with the Raspberry Pi enabling users to make use of additional computing power and wireless connectivity provided by the Pi.

We’ve seen a lot of parents purchasing Raspberry Pis for their kids in the hope they’d get hooked on to programming and hacking. But most get discouraged by the steep learning curve at the beginning. Ro-buddy bridges this gap by enabling easy connectivity and providing an out of the box experiences for these kids so they’re not discouraged at the beginning of the computing journey.

In a nutshell, Ro-buddy helps you to concentrate on your creative idea rather than the hardware/software needed to realize it.

Who are the founders, and what are their backgrounds?

Damith Herath – A roboticist with a PhD in Robotics

Christian Kroos – A cognitive scientist with a PhD in Linguistics

Zhengzhi Zhang – A software engineer with an MSc in Engineering.

Where are you based?

We’re based in Sydney, Australia

What’s the startup scene like where you are based?

There’s a fairly vibrant startup community in Sydney and it is quite active and growing at the moment. However, investors are still hedging their bets mainly on traditional industries such as mining. In particular, there’s very little enthusiasmfor high tech startups that involve hardware like ours.

How do you see people using Ro-buddy once it’s developed?

As mentioned earlier, Ro-buddy is a great way to build robots and other things with minimal programming effort – for example someone who bought a Raspberry Pi and then never really managed to use it to build something because of the initial learning curve – Ro-buddy provides a great entry point.

It is a great way to combine your Android device and hardware to create robots, toys, school projects etc. Having a tightly integrated hardware/software system enables people to concentrate on their creative side rather than the software/hardware aspects, which are usually the realms of geeks.

Another great way to use Ro-buddy is to give a new lease of life for your old RC toys. You could easily replace your old RC toy car’s electronics with a Ro-buddy board and start controlling it with an Android device! In combination with a Raspberry Pi you could even turn it into a spy bot or a semi-autonomous vehicle using the Python API that comes with Ro-buddy.

Where do you see the field of robotics going in the next 10 years?

We’re heading for a very interesting decade of robotics.

We personally believe that this period is similar in nature to the beginnings of the PC revolution. We’ve seen new companies like Re-think bringing robotic manufacturing to a new level and many other successful startups appearing on the map. There’s also crowd funded robotic projects like Romo. Mind you we were engaged in a similar project slightly before Romo that used the software framework mentioned earlier – A project in collaboration with a renowned artist – Stlearc

Increasingly we’ll see human friendly robots entering the day-to-day use in unconstrained public environments. They’ll be in different shapes, sizes and form but would be fairly ubiquitous. Also, the Internet of Things will play a major role in this period.

What are some of the milestones your startup has already reached?

Ro-buddy is only the beginning for us. We are committed bringing the knowledge gained from working on the Thinking Head project and turning it into useful and commerciallyviable robotic products. So far, we have been able to assemble a great team to develop critical software and hardware. We’ve also been able garner the help of a few key industry/academic leaders in Australia to act as our mentors.

For example, Prof Chris Drane who is a serial entrepreneur on his own right is one of our mentors.

What are your next milestones?

First priority is to complete the Ro-buddy project and deliver on our promises to our backers. In tandem we’re working on another robotic project – which is in stealth mood at the moment.

Also, we’re exploring the possibility of using Ro-buddy on industrial strength applications.

Once we have these working prototypes, we’ll be looking at potential partnerships, funding and/or investment opportunities.

Where can people find out more? Any social media links you want to share?

Web: http://ro-buddy.com

Twitter: @RobologicalCo (https://twitter.com/robologicalco)

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Robological

Boulder Startup Announces Thousands & Thousands Of Tiny Robots

This morning Modular Robotics announced a Kickstarter campaign that will bring “thousands and thousands of tiny robots” into the world.

Modular Robotics is the company behind Cubelets, magnetic blocks that can be snapped together to create robots. The toys have experienced some popularity. Time had this to say about the products:

Think of them as gateway drugs into the world of robotics: First, you learn about the basic concept of robotics by connecting Cubelets. Then, using the API, you get a taste of programming. Then you’re hooked, learning C and making your Cubelets do all kinds of things.

Next thing you know, you’re a engineering student at MIT and, boom, high-tech labor shortage over. You’re welcome, America.

Lofty goals for a small company in Boulder, but with its newest creation, Modular Robotics is just raising expectations even higher. After 2 1/2 years of development, Modular Robotics is launching MOSS.

MOSS follows the same idea as Cubelets: tiny robots that require no knowledge of electronics or coding. However, MOSS allows for more dynamic building. Cubelets were blocks that clicked together. MOSS incorporates spherical ball bearings and “rare earth” magnets to connect the modules. The magnets create joints and hinges, allowing the wheels of the car above to actually turn like regular wheels.

With the launch of MOSS, Modular Robotics is also rolling out a few iPhone apps that will allow builders to control their robots from their phones using bluetooh technology. Robots and remote controls in one toy? I’m sold.

Most toys and consumer electronics are built outside of the United States, but Modular Robotics thinks they know a better way. They’ve built a factory in Boulder and all parts of MOSS will be assembled right there. “We get to build robots that help us build robots,” they point out on the Kickstarter page.

Smart toys are increasing in popularity as the world changes. There are competitors in the space, like New York-based Little Bits. However, Modular Robotics offers a simpler experience. Pull the toys out of the box, click them together, and watch your robot work.

The Time excerpt above plays perfectly on every parents’ deepest desire: for our children to be successful. In past years parents plopped their kids down in front of Baby Einstein in hopes of increasing their intelligence. Today’s savvy parents know that if our kids are exposed early to STEM, they may actually have a job later in life. (Unlike most of us, who wasted our time with silly humanities degrees…)

MOSS is officially on Kickstarter, and backers will be the first customers with access to the new toys.

CES 2012: Check Out Cubelets Robot Construction Kits For Kids By Modrobotics

The erector set has stepped into the next century with a new product by Mod Robotics called Cubelets. Cubelets are a modular building block robotic construction kit for kids. Mod Robotics is targeting kids aged 8 and up but at they explain to us in the interview younger kids have enjoyed cubelets as well.

All kids like to start with putting blocks together. One of the reason brick blocks like Lego’s or Megablocks are so popular is because kids like “clicking” them together. Cubelets allows you to “click” together blocks like children are used to, however the nearly 30 different blocks are divided into three important categories Sense Blocks, Action Blocks and Think Blocks.

Some blocks have motorized wheels, others can be controlled by light, motion and proximity, while other blocks block communication. Each block has a different function which allows the constructed robot to do different things.

As kids use the cubelets longer they realize what each block does and have come up with some wild stuff.

Check out the video for a brief description and to see Cubelets in action. This is actually one of the coolest things we saw at CES this year.