Robots are great fun, but wouldn’t you rather have one you build yourself? KamiBot is made of paper, so anyone can put it together.
You don’t need to be an origami master to do so either. The company behind it provides the paper craft templates online for free, so all you have to do is print them out and follow the instructions.
Its body is fitted with a magnetic strip. Swapping parts in is as easy as unclipping from the magnet and adding in a new one.
You can then control it using your smartphone or tablet, thanks to its infrared sensors.
It’s plenty smart too. It can detect objects in front of it using ultrasound sensors, so it’ll never bump into anything. It lights up as well, so it can double as a nightlight.
It operates on the Arduino platform, which is open source and very simple to get to grips with. Fire up the Scratch programming language, and you’re off and running.
Read more: Buddy is a home robot that will entertain your kids
The advantage of using paper is you can print it yourself and personalise it how you see fit. Plus it keeps the cost much lower than a metal ‘bot.
You can snap one up now for just $109 (£71) with the early bird. It’s raised $233, but has only been going a few hours. If it hits its $30,000 goal in 60 days, it’ll ship in March.
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Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.