We’re huge fans of small programmable robots you can fiddle with on a desktop. They let you dabble in a bit of robotics without requiring a big investment or a deep trove of skills. The Wair KT2 is the newest one that picked our fancy with its incredibly athletic disposition.
Billed as a “kungfu turtle,” the robot takes on a form factor not dissimilar to a palm-sized version of the slow-moving reptile, albeit without the bony and leathery shell on the back. However, what makes it special is its jointed limbs, which allows for agile movements we rarely see in desktop automatons.
The Wair KT2 takes on a pretty barebones appearance, looking little more than a power bank with four legs attached to it. Seriously, look at that thing. All four legs are jointed, so it can be raised and lowered much like our own arms. While that seems simple enough, the ability to control each leg individually at both fast and slow paces allow it to perform some neat tricks. According to the outfit, that’s because they designed a full motion control system specifically for this robot, which gives it precise and dynamic movements. The result is a robot that can perform somersaults, get up quickly after flipping over, leap forward, and perform one-handed pushups, among other athletic-looking moves. It’s quite impressive.
The robot is equipped with touch and six-axis IMU sensors, so it can be programmed to respond to different touch interactions. When you pick it up, for instance, it can move all its legs over and over, almost like it’s trying to wiggle itself away from your grasp, which is pretty awesome to watch. The interactions shown on the project page looks very fluid, too, making it feel like you have a miniature pet, rather than a robot toy.
The Wair KT2 comes with 99 built-in games, so you can do various activities with it right out of the box. According to the outfit, the games include interactive battles, puzzle challenges, racing showdowns, and strategy games. Some games can be played alone by the robot, while others will require both human and robot input. Some games, however, such as robot wrestling, tug of war, and the races, require two or more of the robots to be pitted against each other. We’re not sure how deep or fun these built-in games are, but the robot definitely comes with a good load of programming onboard, so you can have some fun with right off the bat.
The robot houses an 800mAh battery that, the outfit claims, holds enough charge to let you play with it for four hours straight, while onboard Bluetooth and Wi-Fi lets you interact wirelessly with the onboard computer system. It runs on a system called TurtleOS, which includes programming modules, complete with support for drag-and-drop Blockly coding, so even smaller kids can partake on the fun. Do note, the included app to program and interact with the robot is only available as a web app for now, with the mobile app scheduled to launch towards the end of the year.
A Kickstarter campaign is currently running for the Wair KT2. You can reserve a unit for pledges starting at $99.