There is GoPiGo3.
There was GiggleBot.
And now:
Sloth - it has Blockly and Python, even remote control from a phone.
It walks, it dances, it talks, it sings, and can “see” that something is in front of it. Adorable. $82 with a rechargeable battery
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Except that it’s not a Dexter/MR product.
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A crying shame too, but perhaps only Asia can afford to create and support the personal/educational robots market.
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@CleoQc recently posted a school for the blind in Germany is using the GoPiGo3. That’s pretty cool.
Perhaps another way to attract:
I would love to see someone 3D print a “burger shape” GoPiGo3 chassis
- with increased wheelbase to improve the rotational odometry accuracy
- perhaps with two mounting options -
- as wide as existing wires allow
- really wide with new wire assemblies
- perhaps with two mounting options -
- with slightly increased spacing to the top plate
- allows Pi5 with cooler stack
- allows SSD hat
- with mounting holes and 3Dprinted brackets for iRobot recharge contacts
- the larger surface area would also allow room for a 5v auxiliary boost buck
- with a 3Dprinted bumper
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. . . . . maybe something silly like “advertising”? (That is, advertising something other than cubelets?)
Advertising? What a concept!
Maybe, just maybe, advertise in relevant venues like a Raspberry Pi magazine, (MagPi or something?), or in something that robot aficionados read? Arrange for a good review or two? Heck! I’ll write one!
Maybe in Nuts & Volts or a robotics magazine?
Popular Science?
Teaching magazines?
Maybe some cleverly applied social media?
Maybe go on a road-show, visiting science museums, libraries, or the occasional shopping mall doing FPV robot races? (While bringing some robot kits to sell? 
)
How about places like Micro Center? They LOVE stuff like that, especially around the holidays.
No matter what I see in the hobby robotics field, I am still struck by the sheer “bang for the buck” of the GoPiGo robot.
Given its mixture of capabilities and price, it’s difficult to beat. Possibly not impossible, but difficult, nonetheless.
Another thing:
Why not advertise some of these great GoPiGo success stories on the GoPiGo web site? Or hire someone to give that site a bit of “zing!”? Right now it’s a bit difficult to navigate and is something of a snooze-fest as far as creating excitement is concerned.
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Bottom line:
Until MR starts to take the GoPiGo robot seriously, it’s going to remain the ignored step-sister sleeping by the fire, waiting and waiting for a handsome prince to rescue it.
Maybe I should rename Charline as “Cinderella”?
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<Frustration induced rant>
Ref: My posting:
Since I can’t afford to buy Cublets, (they’re hundreds of dollars for a small handful that is barely functional), I can’t speak to their build quality, but if it’s anything like the attention they pay to the cublets as compared to the GoPiGo, the cublets are probably pristine.
This raises a significant issue: How many people have we lost as potential customers/users/brand advocates due to poor build quality? How many educational institutions have scrapped any ideas of using the GoPiGo because of this?
As I have read in many different media forums, (including college courses), gaining trust and credibility is a long, time-consuming process but credibility and trust can be lost in an instant.
============ Footnotes ============
- There are times like this when I wish I could buy DI out from under MR, and start paying attention to the robot again. I still cannot imagine for the life of me why in God’s Holy Name they let the GiggleBot slip away. (
)
</Frustration induced rant>
[Edit save delayed due to construction-induced power failure.]
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