Who Needs It and Why?

Skoobot is tiny robot you will like and enjoy. It is full of cool tech, like Bluetooth Low Energy wireless, a 32-bit processor, a distance sensor, a microphone and a buzzer. It can be controlled through an Android phone or a Raspberry Pi. It has fun games like capture the flag and robotroll. All the software is open source and modifiable by anyone. It’s small size makes it easy to store and experiment with.

In addition, after the campaign, I will be offering live webinars (online classes) where you can learn to program Skoobot, Android, and the Raspberry Pi. Let the hacking begin!

What can it do?

Skoobot has a powerful 32-bit processor with fast floating point. Skoobot can communicate wirelessly with as many other Skoobots as you like. It can talk to Android phones and Raspberry Pi’s. It has a distance sensor which can measure objects from zero to four inches away. It can sense the light level. It has a microphone and can record bursts of audio. By using the fast floating point, it can do a fourier transform in preparation for word recognition. It also has buzzer to communicate.

Why did I make it?

The idea for Skoobot came from watching kids at an ADHD camp interact around a toy of fighting spinning tops. Older kids were involved and engaged with the younger ones. They chatted freely about the tops and the games. I realized I could do the same, maybe better with something more sophisticated and focused, perhaps involving ideas from education and ADHD research. When I left my last company, I decided to use my engineering skills to help these kids. From this, Skoobot was born.

I gave it a microphone, and a powerful enough processor to handle the math needed for spoken word recognition. I gave it a buzzer to create feedback to the user in a meaningful way. Once the children are drawn in by the cuteness and novelty, I direct them towards a cooperative game, with each child taking a turn. The game could be to solve a maze, or to help the robots communicate with a beep-based language. The cooperative game will be optimized for fun and social learning.

I also know Skoobot is fun to play with, and suits my needs as a hacker toy. It is also great for games and swarms of multiple Skoobots. So, I decided to build up Skoobot in phases. The first is the toy and hacker phase, where I build software and get as much help as possible improving the robot. The next phase is the Arduino phase, where the software is made less complex to enable more people to fun with Skoobot. The last phase is the Edtech robot. My goal is to develop software options for everyone, and improve the hardware and software continuously.