Learn To Program With A Self-made Robo-cat

Cat videos and memes seem to have dominated the internet for years. So it is only natural that sooner or later an engineer will come up with the idea to share his plans for an open source-based robot cat with the net world. You don't have to be a cat lover to find the Nybble project appealing: the crowdfunding project aims to encourage prospective developers to build a robot cat themselves and to breathe life into it with the help of an Arduino board and software coding.

The open source robot cat

Nybble is a crowdfunding project on Indiegogo, which is part of the Arrow Certified Technology partner program and is based on an open source platform called "Open Cat". It includes a kit of laser cut parts and builds on an Arduino board to control the movements of the assembled robot cat. The complex motion control implemented in this way should enable the self-made kitten to learn natural behaviors such as balancing, walking and cuddling.

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“Nybble's movement is controlled by an Arduino compatible microcontroller. It instinctively stores 'muscle memory' to move, "writes Nybble creator Rongzhong Li on the Indiegogo project website. For optional additional intelligence, the robotic cat can be expanded with a Raspberry Pi board to help Nybble perceive to help you find your way. "You can program in your preferred language and control the Nybble run easily with short commands such as 'go' or 'turn left'," Li continues.

The heart of the Nybble kit is the NyBoard V0, an Arduino-compatible board that is based on an ATmega328P microcontroller. The board is also available separately; If you want to build your own kit, you will find all the necessary resources in the associated GitHub repository from OpenCat. Nybble's Cope is available under an open source MIT license. The necessary hardware components can be viewed on a Hackster.io page.

The Nybble project has already achieved its intended financing goal; currently $ 150,000 was received through the Indiegogo crowdfunding platform. Interested parties can still participate in crowdfunding on the project page.

The pure, arduino-compatible Nybble board without components can be purchased from US $ 45 for those who have access to a laser cutter and would prefer to build their own robot animal. The complete Nybble kit including cat kit and board costs US $ 245. The target delivery time should be in April 2019.

This article first appeared on our partner portal Elektronikpraxis.de.