Marty the Robot v2 is a kid-friendly programmable walking robot that can dance like John Travolta
Robobop
In a market awash with programmable robots for kids, you need to stand out to have legs. Marty the Robot v2 (£125) achieves this mostly with its actual legs, used for walking and – occasionally – dancing like John Travolta. Once assembled, much of Marty’s power is in those blue pins, their three-motor and spring design affording the ‘bot plenty of dexterity. Coding with Scratch or Python enables you to make Marty walk, turn, kick and dance. An array of sensors and capabilities – tilt; proximity; force; obstacle detection; grabbing hands; a speaker – allow more advanced fare. Modular extensibility means you can add a Raspberry Pi and a camera, too, so Marty can become autonomous and plot humanity’s doom due to you putting Night Fever on for the fiftieth time when all the robot wanted to hear was a bit of Kraftwerk.
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Craig Grannell
Contributor 