Ross Atkins wants to be able to give kids the opportunity to make their own toys and turn anything into a robot. In 2008 Atkins was working on the Scarcity project with Chris Holden and Ed Murfitt and he wanted to find systems to combine one very durable component with an easily recycled component. This idea eventually turned into the Crafty Robot, and Atkins is currently running a Kickstarter campaign to fund his robot project he calls the £5 Robot.
The body and brains of Crafty Robot is the Fizzbit, a small circuit board that runs a vibrating motor and is powered through USB. After charging the Crafty Robot through a USB port for a few minutes the robot is ready to move. Several templates of different robot bodies can be downloaded from the project’s website – PDFs can be downloaded for users to make on their printers and STL files are available for 3D printers.
Atkins stresses that he wants the Crafty Robot experience to be experimentation and iteration, not programming. He says that design and engineering are required to turn technology into products and processes that people can use. Using a super capacitor for power storage and paper or 3D printing filament for the body is the method Ross is using to minimize impact to the environment. He says that you can recharge the Fizzbit thousands of times and after recycling the paper housings kids can have dozens of different toys.
Crafty Robots are a novelty toy meant to teach kids about building and iterative design. The Kickstarter campaign is professional and really manages to make me want a toy that’s the 2015 equivalent of a vibrating football game. (The CFL also had a version for Canadian fans but I can’t find any images of vibrating soccer or hockey games.) This is a very simple idea that’s executed incredibly well, with a great eye for style and design, and a passion for sustainability. The campaign ends on October 25, 2015 and units are expected to ship in time for Christmas if the project is funded.
