Petoi Bittle Robot Dog Kit, Open Source STEM Educational Toy

I bought Bittle X construction version for my daughter to get started in robotics and coding. She spent like 2-3 hours assembling and setting up the robot dog following the documentation. It's not the smoothest process as it did take some tinkering to get everything right. But it's worth the effort. We can control the robot dog with the mobile app and voice-command it. Because she already has some experience with Scratch programming, it's straightforward for her to code Bittle with block-based programming and do some projects from the quadruped robotics curriculum. I am an experienced developer. But I've had fun programming Bittle because quadruped programming is quite different from other forms of programming as I need to control legs simultaneously to move Bittle around and maintain its balance at the same time. Overall, it's a great educational robot kit for teenagers and adults.

I bought Bittle X as a birthday gift for my 9 year old son, who absolutely loves it! The tricks such as front/back flips that are activated through voice commands are really cool and cute at the same time. I bought the construction kit, so my son and I had a lot of fun assembling it as well. The step-by-step assembly instructions on YouTube make it pretty straightforward. During assembly, we ran into an issue with one of the servos not working properly. That's when I had the pleasure of discovering how good their tech-support is. I requested help through their website and I got an email response by the end of the day, clearly showing step-by-step instructions with screenshots how to reconfigure the servo pins to address the issue. That indeed got the robot fully working, and they were also very helpful with answering a couple of my further questions. I look forward to introducing my son to the exciting world of coding and robotics through Bittle's educational platform.

Got this for my sister for birthday, a 17 year old high school student with great interest in engineering and computer science. The product itself do need assembly but is vey well presented, all components were neatly organized and easily recognizable, it was a pleasure seeing my sister put them all together. And that was just the start. ( which did take half day, I believe they do have pre-assembled version) She immediately dive into the coding part of the fun, software came with the product was easy to use, With builtin bluetooth and USB modules, and a remote, you can unlock all kinds of possibility, which opens unlimited potential. you can rewrite any part of the code you want because it's open source, it's small yet strong. I highly recommend the Petoi Bittle robot dog kit to anyone interested in learning robotics or engineering.

Expensive but it is okey if you are a people don’t like puzzles I recommend the pre ensambled version

Oh it was a disappointment, I planned it as a present with the idea that the dog will actually do something on it's own, but the reality was a bit harsh for the money: * The dog was prebuilt, but front legs were assembled wrong - the wire made it impossible to rotate in right direction. * Calibration process is a pain - doesn't fit for prebuilt product. * Sudden and abrupt movements (when dog for example initializes it could rapidly streighten legs and jump somewhere) looks like a bug in firmware - the transitions should not be so harsh and looks unnatural and creepy. * No movements until commanded from ir-remote or smartphone - how is that? At least rotate a head or do simple stand movements on it's own. * Development docs are a mess - arrays with numbers? Really? When I want to make my custom move - there should be a simple explanation example, not a tons of infinity number tables of arduino code. * Android application is ok, but the custom movements interface is weird and no useful docs about it. Overall it's underdeveloped product needs quite a bit of polish.

I just can't put it down. I purchased the pre-built version, and am glad that I did. Not much extra cost for them to put it together. I'm sure that some like the building experience, but not me. It can be used right out of the box with an Android (or iPhone?) app or by using the IR remote. There is a built-in gyro (which can be disabled), which triggers a recovery motion if Bittle is upside down. There is add-on hardware, my favorite of which is the Mu Vision Sensor camera. The camera can be set to stream video, so you see what it sees. Bittle itself can also be setup for WiFi, so that you can control him with anything that can run a web browser. It can use Bluetooth and USB out of the box. But the real fun starts when writing code for it. The open-source software means that you can rewrite any part of the code you want. There are libraries online for further enhancements. You can add "instincts" or edit already written "instincts," which are new positions or motions, like walk, trot, run (forward, backward, and left, right), sit, pee, pushups, look around, etc. It's fairly easy to add instincts, although designing them can take thought and experimentation - especially the gaits (as opposed to behaviors and postures). That's not to say that you will be programming Bittle to climb steps on the first day (unless you're far more experienced than I). Plenty of patience and research is required in order to do anything fancy. There is significant online documentation, but you need to put the instruction pieces together and understand how it all works. You can code in Python, C++, and some visual language that I have yet to try (but might be great for beginner programmers). I'm using the recommended Arduino IDE (free for Windows, macOS and Linux), which seems to have a large following, along with the availability of more open-source software. As the headline states, the possibilities are endless with this ingenious robot - all depending on how much effort you want to expend in research and/or your own programming. Unlike toys with built-in actions and nothing else, your imagination is the limiting factor. Cons: My Bittle's head doesn't have a great physical connection, so it can get disconnected when he falls over. I have been leaving the head off when experimenting. The optional camera is an odd physical setup, mounted in Bittle's mouth. I may try to come up with a different design with a 3d printer, but that could be a project on its own. I have yet to figure out how to connect a Raspberry Pi (not a lot of documentation), but hope to be able to do that at some point. I'm guessing that it will require a bit of soldering. I would like to be able to purchase each Bittle part separately (the plastic body parts, motors, springs, screws, main board, add-on cards, battery, etc.). The online documentation is extensive, although there are portions that are unclear to me or not 100% comprehensive/complete. Maybe it's just my USB cables, but I am concerned that plugging/unplugging the battery charger will wear out the cable that is placed so close to the charging port. Also, USB-C might be better than Micro USB these days. Overall, Bittle is a blast. If you like tinkering, coding, and learning, you won't be disappointed or bored. But even if you don't wish to become a programmer, it is fun to play with right out of the box.