Thank you to everyone who shared a story, cast a vote, or simply followed along during Petoi's community celebration of National Robotics Week 2026. Here are the winners and stories.
🏆 Grand Prize — Petoi's Choice
1 Petoi robot (up to $350) + exclusive Petoi T-shirt
[NRW2026] Building a Custom Quadruped with Petoi Motors! (The Sesame Robot Project) by /u/Starphee — 63 upvotes
Dorian Todd started Sesame as a late-night idea: an open-source, affordable quadruped anyone could build for $50–70. The original was hand-wired with off-the-shelf servos. He entered an early prototype into a past Petoi competition — we recognized it and sent him a set of Petoi P2S/P1S motors. That unlocked Sesame Pro: the same modular design, now running on real hardware.
⭐ Community Favorite — Community Stories
$150 Petoi store credit + exclusive Petoi T-shirt
[NRW2026] How about dancing? by /u/yosidia — 18 upvotes
The submitter's daughter decided the robot's hobby would be dance — and wrote all the code herself. Simple, joyful, and exactly what a robot pet should be doing.
⭐ Community Favorite — Classroom Stories
$150 Petoi store credit + exclusive Petoi T-shirt
[NRW2026] Mars Rover Camp: Kids coded Bittle X at a NASA-themed STEM camp in Silicon Valley by /u/Particular_Badger_72 — 7 upvotes
CP Mentorship ran a NASA-themed robotics camp where kids went from zero to programming custom movement sequences with Bittle X — exploring AI concepts, building real engineering intuition, and yes, breaking things along the way.
⭐ Community Favorite — Future Robotics Ideas
$150 Petoi store credit + exclusive Petoi T-shirt
[NRW2026] A pet for my pet by /u/trader-joestar — 5 upvotes
A robot whose only job is swinging a string, so the cat isn't alone. A pet for a pet. Specific, practical, and exactly the kind of idea worth building.
🎲 Participation Draw
$50 Petoi store credit each
These participants joined the celebration, shared their work, and made the community richer for it. Every one of them deserved to be here.
We originally planned for 10 draw winners. With 8 eligible participants, all 8 receive the prize.
Congratulations to our 8 participation draw winners:
- /u/Unlucky-Incident71
- /u/NauciKod
- /u/Ian_Too
- /u/Don_Patrick
- /u/Alert-Network-8879
- /u/watermelloncool
- /u/Evening_Bodybuilder5
- /u/Marinekaizer
A Few Moments That Stayed With Us
Mr. Low — 80 years old, based in Singapore. He started with block coding, then borrowed Python books from the library, wrestled with the API, and kept going until it clicked. He's still going.
Teri Roberts brought Bittle into classrooms and events across New Mexico — from a workshop with girls in grades 7–9 at a local charter school, to the Northern New Mexico STEAM Summit. In her words: "Petoi technology is a valuable door-opener to possibilities. Kids just light up."
/u/NauciKod introduced Bittle V2 and the robotic arm to students aged 12–16 in a single session — Skill Composer, Mind+ block coding, no prior experience. The engagement was immediate. Sometimes one session is all it takes.
Petoi on Fox 2 San Francisco — we joined KTVU alongside student leaders from Codeward at Chabot College to talk about making robotics accessible for students of all ages and the celebration of National Robotics Week.
Bittle in Harvard, CMU & Google X research — a paper titled Tiny Robot Learning highlights Bittle as a prime example of an accessible, low-cost autonomous quadruped robot. Researchers contrast Bittle against Boston Dynamics Spot to show how budget-friendly platforms are pushing the boundaries of what's possible. Read more about all the research.
/u/Ian_Too was working as an AI and Technology Education Intern at CP Mentorship when he ran a winter robotics camp for kids. After the coding sessions, kids wanted to drive Bittle X themselves — but getting the robot into their hands quickly, without drivers or setup, was the problem. So he built a browser-based Xbox controller using the OpenCat protocol over WebBluetooth. It's live at bittle-x.frostyspark.dev — anyone can use it right now.
/u/Alert-Network-8879 upgraded a classic wooden Nybble with a BiBoard V1 — gaining WiFi, BLE, and USB-C in the process. The highlight: custom voice commands recorded directly on the board. His custom voice commands include "handstand," "Mouse" (to hunt), and "Lucky Cat" (to wave its paw).
Thank You
To every builder, educator, dreamer, and voter — this community is why we do this. Keep building, keep sharing.
Winners, please check your Reddit messages. We'll send prize details directly.
