Sphero RVR: The new hackable and expandable robot for programmers and STEM education

Hey there,

If you are on this blog, It's mainly because you like STEM, tinker, robotics and fresh news about the open community and open source world.

Sphero

That good because, we have some fresh news for you. If you are familiar with Sphero that's good. If not, this is a small ball you can program and even control with your smartphone. He looks like BB8 for those of you who are familiar with Star wars.

Kisckstarter

Sphero announced in February this new robot on Kickstarter which blew up the amount that was supposed to be collected. Still 18 days remaining while writing this article. It is called Shero RVR

Hardware

It's a modular project that can be hack with different open source and open hardware board such as: Raspberry pi, Arduino, beaglebone and many others.

It is composed of the following hardware:

• Infrared sensor

• Light sensor

• RGB sensor

• Rechargeable battery

• Accelerometer

• Gyroscope

• Magnetometer

• and more

Sensors can also be added to the project, wifi module.

Software

It's programmable right of the box.

It is also made for education. So a big part for STEM will be dedicated with this robot. They are prooving it with a Blocky software called "Sphero edu". It can also be programmed with text. So the kids can learn how to code for robots or those who are more familiar with coding and use text programming for more advanced configuration.

It's price on the Kickstarter platform starts at $199.

An online community platform has also been created for those of you who would like to exchange with other programmers, hackers to exchange and share your work.

That's also a good way to learn how to build a robot specially for the kids in STEM activities and also how to code.

More infos on the project can be found with the following link for all of you who may want to order: Sphero RVR programmable robot for education and STEM.

A nice video of the Sphero RVR can be found at the end of the article. Check it out!

If you enjoy the article, please comment or share your thoughts about it at the end of the article.

What do you think?

What do you prefer in this robot?

Do you think this a robot you would like to acquire?

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