
Sphero RVR – The Go Anywhere, Do Anything Programmable Robot - mooreds
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/sphero/sphero-rvr-the-go-anywhere-do-anything-programmabl
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awhitty
Happy they designed the robot with a replaceable battery! I received an Ollie
as a gift back in 2014, and the battery is flat-out dead. Wish I could still
fiddle with it.

I’m a bit surprised Sphero is using Kickstarter for this campaign — they’re a
large company now with access to plenty of cash, I assume. Pre-orders have
usually been a part of their independent product launches (i.e. the products
that aren’t Lightning McQueen), so I could see this as an extension of that
strategy with a maker/hacker/DIY aesthetic. Crowds out Kickstarter and makes
it harder for the smaller operations to get discovered though.

In general (and take this with a grain of salt because I don’t know robots,
only familiar with Sphero’s history), I think Sphero accidentally positioned
themselves super well for building out products like these. They started with
a robot-in-a-ball. Literally a two-wheeled robot driving like a hamster in a
ball. In order to support a user-friendly driving experience with the original
Sphero, they invested in the accelerometer and gyroscopic sensors and the way
they provide feedback to the drive system. So even when the wheels would slip
inside the ball, the robot would detect the change in heading and adjust to
suit the driver’s original intent. They mention briefly in the video how this
RVR bot can hold its heading on bumpy terrain, and I assume that’s the same
platform at work. It’s neat to me because this feedback mechanism sounds like
the kind of thing that’s hard to patch onto a robotic platform produced at
scale and get it right, to the extent that folks won’t bother. They kinda got
that one “for free” by validating that folks will buy a ball, and it looks
like it’s been a solid platform for other variations on driving robots. (But
again, I don’t know much about robots. This could be standard practice for all
I know.)

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markdeloura
Sphero as a company has done a great job making accessible bots that can be
used for both fun at home and education at school. That gives me high hopes
for this new bot! Expandability, swappable battery, and price point are top of
the list for edu and looking promising so far. Hope we'll hear more about
sensors and features in this thread!

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syntaxing
This looks super interesting. You can probably learn a lot if you pair this
with a 3D printer, especially in the education industry. To be honest, I want
one for myself! I'm surprised that they are willing to give Kickstarter a 20%
cut when they could of done a preorder system since they are a reputable brand
to begin with.

