With the Holidays just a few weeks away, it’s probably time to think about what gifts the young kids in your life might like. If they’re into robotics, perhaps Bellrobot’s Mabot Plug-and-Play Modular Robot is just what you’re looking for. Sure it’s a STEM-based learning kit, but it’s easy to put together and program in nearly endless combinations. And with added LEGO compatibility? The icing on the cake.
According to Bellrobot, the Mabot comes in kit form and allows you to use modular balls to create different robots with unique functions — including moving, sensing, and interacting with its environment.
Five kinds of robotic balls make up the Mabot including a control ball, drive ball, sensing ball, connection ball, and battery ball, all of which can be hot-swapped without turning off the power. As a bonus, you can integrate Legos—both Technics and standard, into your design, allowing for additional creativity in your creations.
Programming the Mabot is done through the Mabot Go app, which uses an IDE based on Scratch, allowing kids to easily drag-and-drop instruction sets in a novel GUI environment to create instructions. The app also comes with step-by-step instructions to build 12 different robots, each with a different mission for kids to complete, which allows them to learn as they go through the building and programming process.
Bellrobot offers four different Mabot kits- including a Starter Kit, Advanced Kit, Deluxe Kit, and Pro Kit- each with an increased amount of components the higher you go. The kits are available now on Amazon starting at $199 and up.
