Cubelets – A Robot Construction Kit

As kids, we played with Legos, Tinker Toys, Lincoln Logs, and Erector Sets. Over the years there have been efforts to integrate this desire to “build things” with robots, combining the physical (e.g., Legos) with the digital (software). One of the first attempts at creating a robot construction platform has evolved into Lego Mindstorms. Now we have discovered Cubelets – a great new way to introduce kids robotics. Developed by Modular Robotics who have just raised $3m in funding from Foundry Groupto get their awesome product cubelets into production and out in the world. Check them out!

Cubelets are magnetic blocks that can be snapped together to make an endless variety of robots with no programming and no wires. You can build robots that drive around on a tabletop, respond to light, sound, and temperature, and have surprisingly lifelike behavior. There are currently 15 Cubelets, including Battery, Brightness, Distance, Drive, Flashlight, Inverse, Knob, Rotate, Speaker, and Temperature. By configuring them in different ways, amazing robots can be quickly created.

Each Cubelet is programmable so the behavior can be specifically changed and controlled through software. ModRobotics is also currently developing a proprietary programming environment with a User Interface that offers a simple scripting language as well as a detailed programming language.

Pretty awesome – we think so!!

Want some Cubelets? Pre-order a kit now!