Sarah Tew / CNET
At the end of last year Sphero – the robotics company with all the cute robot balls and Star Wars droids – – debuted the RVR, a tank robotic car with a profile, which was developed for hacking and programming. It is aimed at educators and coding programs for schools, but let’s face it: this is a fantastic STEM toy for at home for every child or adult with some coding problems. Over on the official Sphero website, the price was constant at $ 250, but on Amazon the price dropped last month or so. And now that Sphero RVR costs $ 132.15This is 47% off the regular price and the lowest price ever for this robot.
If you or your child have programming problems, the RVR at $ 132 is an amazing catch. It is equipped with a color sensor, a light sensor, an IR, an accelerometer and a gyroscope. The bot is fully programmable with tools such as Draw & Drive, scratch blocks or JavaScript.
In fact, RVR is hackable with SDK and API libraries, making it suitable for encoders of all levels of difficulty. You can add Arduino, Raspberry Pi, or LittleBits components to the robot for additional hacking potential. And you don’t have to be a programmer to have fun with an RVR. It is immediately drivable like an R / C car.
Look at that:
Sphero RVR is a fully programmable, “hackable” robot
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