ROBOTICAL, the educational technology startup, has launched a crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter to help fund and develop the next version of its award-winning Marty the Robot. Marty the Robot is a versatile, walking, dancing, eyebrow-wiggling low cost STEM robot designed for children and educators to learn coding and robotics skills. The first version of Marty the Robot has been shipped to over 50 countries worldwide.
Like its predecessor, Marty v2 can be coded by users from ages 8-18 in computer languages including Scratch and Python, is compatible with single board computers like Raspberry Pi and can be customised with 3D printed parts. Marty comes as a kit or pre-built, so users can either build from the ground up or jump straight into coding the robot to walk, turn, dance, kick a football and more.
The new Marty has been built based on feedback accumulated since 2016 when Marty v1 launched. The result is a second-generation robot with new features like sound, to let Marty talk, position sensing which enables Marty to play back movements demonstrated by users and new add-ons like Disco Marty and grabbing hands – giving young users more ways than ever to get hands on skills with Marty.
Robotical CEO and founder, Dr Sandy Enoch, who is the inventor of Marty the Robot, said: “Creating the first Marty was a dream come true and we’re thrilled to launch the new and improved Marty v2. Marty v2 was built with a passion to help kids learn how to code intuitively and easily progress into using real world technologies like Python. It’s also fun – new add-ons like Disco Marty give you over a hundred controllable colour changing LED, which look great and give hours and hours of entertainment!”
“We want to help continue to shape the future of education. Learning to code is a lifelong skill that helps teach kids not just employment-relevant skills of programming, but also life skills like problem-solving, patience and creativity,” said Enoch.
Myles Bax, Robotical’s head of enterprise business development, said: “With Marty v2, our hope is to continue making STEM education accessible to children of all ages across the globe. Marty already helps children across more than 50 countries, including the UK, US, Australia and in schools in Rwanda. With these newly added features, we’re hoping that Marty v2 will expand further with its unique fun and educational approach.”
The estimated delivery date
Robotical has just opened its first US office, in Boston, to further target the North American schools market. There are more than 130,000 schools in the US, and Robotical is already seeing a great deal of interest for their unique robot.
