Petoi’s Bittle is a palm-sized, open-source, programmable robot dog designed for STEM and fun. For those who don’t know, Petoi specialized in futuristic programmable robotic pets. Its first product, a pet robot cat, was introduced in 2016 and made available for sale in 2019. Since then, the company has received a lot of traction.
Its recent and second product is brittle, a palm-sized robot dog designed to play tricks like real animals to keep people fascinated and entertained. The robot, set to hit the markets by December, is available for crowdfunding on Indiegogo. It has already managed to raise more than $600,000 on the platform and more than $567,000 on Kickstarter.
Design and Construction
Since the robot has been designed to imitate real-life dogs, it pretty much looks like a toy dog made of plastic.
It has a self-assemble design, which means the user will get the parts separately and will need to assemble it themselves. Bittle features an interlocking frame, similar to a 3D puzzle, with symmetric body parts for simplicity and aesthetics.
The whole unit takes an hour to set up. Moreover, it gives its users the freedom to enhance its functions and design by adding extensible modules. The head is designed as a clip for a firm grip, enabling the user to fix more modules easily.
Internals
Internally, it is powered by NyBoard V1, a customized Arduino board that comes with rich peripherals to coordinate sophisticated motions. The board can drive up to 12 PWM servos and help the unit balance with an IMU (Inertial Measurement Unit). Moreover, it is capable of storing muscle memory and detecting visual and audio signals.
Thanks to the Arduino board, the robot can be customized to coordinate all instinctive and sophisticated movements. It can also be injected with artificial intelligence capabilities by mounting a Raspberry Pi or other AI chips through wired/wireless connections.
Bittle comes with an infrared remote to trigger basic movements of string commands like “walk” or “sit.” It moves with four legs, which gives it the freedom to navigate unstructured terrains similar to luxury robots.
Apart from this, it uses 9 P1S servos for movement. 8 of these are for leg joints, while the other one is for head panning. The robot can also remember tens of instinctive motion patterns and perform more fancy tricks with real-time instructions.
Bittle will be available for sale by the end of this year. It is currently up for pre-orders on Indiegogo. The company claims that it will be shipped worldwide through international couriers that can provide reliable tracking. Hence, you can order it from Pakistan as well.
