bots IN BRIEF
SERVO 09.2015 25
LITTLE PEOPLE
PLEASERS
Japanese robot maker,Vstone and telecom company, NTT announced
plans to market little humanoids that can
interact with people and also with
devices around the house. In a recent
press conference in Tokyo, the desktop-size robots — called CommU and Sota
— held conversations with two lifelike
female androids and a male android.
FALL INTO THE VORTEX
Vortex — a new robot from DFRobot — has joined the growing number of toys designed to teach children how
to program. The robot — which can connect to iOS and
Android devices — is designed for kids as young as six years
old.
The robot comes ready to play a number of games,
including bumping fight, golf, driving, and soccer. All you have
to do to get started with these games is add four AA
batteries to Vortex and download the Vortexbot app from
the App Store.
The idea is that children will want to learn how to make
Vortex do more with custom programming. To do so, the WhenDo app is downloaded
from the App Store, and has a variety of tutorials so kids can practice programming basics
and customize their games. DFRobot says WhenDo is intuitive with its drag-and-drop
interface, however,
parents might have to
help kid(s) really
master the app.Vortex
will also come with
pre-set courses to
teach “students” how
to make use of its
built-in capabilities.
Vortex — which is
open source and
compatible with
Arduino and Scratch
— can navigate
obstacles, detect lines,
and report back by using infrared, gray scale, and sound speakers. The wheeled robot
features ground/line following sensors, proximity sensors, and encoders for speed control.
