Cubelets: My Next Robotic Toy!

Hey everyone I think I just found my next toy, and yes they are blocks. These amazing robotic building blocks come from Modular Robotics,a new company that is a spin-off from Carnegie Mellon University. Cubelets are  a research prototype construction toy that they have turned into a commercial product for science centers, children’s museums, and hobbyists.

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. But instead of programming that behavior, you snap the cubelets together and watch the behavior emerge like with a flock of birds or a swarm of bees.

Each cubelet in the kit has different equipment on board and a different default behavior. There are Sense Blocks that act like our eyes and ears, Action blocks, and Think blocks. Just like with people, the senses are the inputs to the system.

If you have an extra $160 laying around you can get your own first 6-piece kit. While a tad high I`m sure they are fun to play with and will reduce in price once demand increases.

[Cubelets]