bots_alive is a kit that turns remote-controlled Hexbug® Spiders into smart and autonomous creatures.

“… could be the most fulfilling $35 you’ve ever spent on a robot.” Evan Ackerman, IEEE Spectrum

“… lifelike behavior through a simple and elegant modification of a popular existing robot… simple pieces make for less-than-simple play.” Devin Coldewey, Techcrunch

“… years of robotics research bundled up and executed in an easy-to-use phone app.” Gabriel Fatone, Simplebotics

“… watch your Hexbug Spider come to life in a very organic manner and then try to work its way out of the various mazes and obstacles you created.” Dan Nessel, Huffington Post

 

 

 

 

 

Inspire your children to learn about STEAM.

“If you wish to build a ship, do not divide your people into teams and send them to the forest to cut wood. Instead, teach them to long for the vast and endless sea.” (Often attributed to Antoine de Saint-Exupéry.)

There are many excellent robot products that aim to teach children to code. Those robots build the ship. We see the curiosity-driven play of bots_alive to be the prior step: building a passion in children for the human-centered design, technology, engineering, and math that drives the robots.

(STEAM is STEM with “arts” added. That’s science, technology, engineering, arts, and math. STEAM adds emphasis on the human experience, including design and creativity.)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Autonomous robots that play and find their way

bots_alive robots navigate the worlds we create around them. We can make it easy for these robots… or difficult.

 

We craft mazes and obstacles courses. The robots try to solve them with unusually organic behavior.

 

One bots_alive smartphone kit gives life to 1 or 2 Hexbug® Spiders.

 

Teach your bot. Improve its skills.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A new, more organic kind of character artificial intelligence

Our goal is to make robots whose behavior appears alive more than any machine you’ve interacted with.

bots_alive robots hesitate, look around curiously, and make mistakes. They’re unpredictable.

All of this comes from a new category of character artificial intelligence that we’re pioneering. It started at the MIT Media Lab in research by founder Brad Knox.

 

Computer vision for augmented reality:

Hold the phone. Or prop it up and play below.

Both iOS and Android are supported.

 

 

 

 

It’s easy to set up.

 

 

Here’s what you can pledge and receive:

Sumo wrestling between 2 robots is unlocked at $50,000.

 

 

 

 

These robots entertain and challenge kids—and the child within each of us.

We’ve built this product with 6–11 year-olds in mind.

We play-tested the robots shortly before the campaign. For these tests, the robots navigated obstacles with their lifelike behavior.

Our young testers built mazes, obstacle courses, and even towers. Then they sat back and watched the robot attempt their test.

What we saw is that these robots put your child in the role of a puzzle designer. And the robot’s organic behavior rewards the kids for their designs, since the robot appears to struggle, falter, and—sometimes—ultimately succeed at the tests. Kids cite the robots’ unpredictability and expressivity as a key reason why building challenges are so much fun.

 

What do kids do in these play tests? See for yourself:

Our companion app controls the robots, but we designed bots_alive for focus on the physical world. The screen is just a reference to occasionally check. We’ve also seen the robots promote group play.

We expect to learn a lot from you and other supporters during this Kickstarter campaign. We’ve seen children as young as 4 and as old as 13 play intensely with the robots. And we’ve received genuine interest from adults.

 

 

 

 

             

 

 

 

  

   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our gratitude

We’d like to thank the following people or groups who have provided repeated mentorship, significant collaboration, or other support:

• Gor Baghdasaryan (video editing)
• David Shackelford and Anthony Johnson (created musical score for our main video)
• Dustin Silverman (collaborated as software engineer)
• Mike Reimers (collaborated as mechatronics engineer)
• Mike Smith (collaborated as electrical engineer)
• Gabriel Lopez-Mobilia (collaborated on user testing)
• Peter Stone (robotics/AI professor at UT Austin)
• Mike Nuttall (cofounder of IDEO)
• John Kestner (founder of Supermechanical)
• Leo Trottier (CEO of Cleverpet)
• Barbara Laudenheimer (former owner/manager of Toy Fair in Shreveport)
• Ryan Kuder (Managing Director at Techstars)
• Mike Goslin (VP, Production and Content at Disney Consumer Products and Interactive Media)
• Karen Allen (Karen Allen Consulting)
• HWTrek
• Bob Christopher (former CEO of Ugobe, makers of Pleo)

 

 

 

 

Legal disclaimer: Hexbug® is the registered trademark of Innovation First International (IFI). IFI neither sponsors nor endorses this product.