Deep Patel and Willow Kohn commented on their experiences and plans in developing robotics applications with Bittle robotics kits:
"By using our open source robots to tweak measurable physical quantities, our skills as physicists and scientists, in general, have been greatly improved. Plus, we have a ton of fun!
For the future, I plan to see if I can adapt the gait of the open source robots such that the robots raise their legs higher, in order to clear any rough terrain. Then, I will re-run my friction/power consumption testing procedure. Willow will likely be working on a different, but related project. "
Deep and Willow are Class of '25 undergraduate students from Haverford College and are passionate about physics and robotics.
You can learn more about how Deep Patel and Aidan Bannon(another student from Haverford College) enhanced Bittle to run on a circular track as a frictional interaction testbed as seen in the video above.
Congratulations, Martin Kuba!
We enjoy seeing your tour of Czech Republic with Bittle, showcasing the culture and people.
Martin shared his experiences with Bittle:
Bittle already, as it is, is an amazing little creature. I've brought my Bittle robotics kit to multiple tech related events already and everyone loved him so far, people's reactions to Bittle, especially kids, who mostly want to pet the robot dog are just always perfect.
If our readers' memories serve them well, they may recall that Marin also won participated in Petoi 2024 Spring Robotics Contest, and won Bittle/Nybble in the Park Theme Award
Honorable Mentions
Patrick Dhondt - a Very Dutch Robot Dog
Displays of nationalism are frowned upon in my culture, but self-mockery is all the better. My video was well received by the locals, not in the least because they thought Bittle robot dog was very cute.
Patrick also shared some thoughts about how he designed the moves in the video:
For this contest I wanted to have Bittle robot dog walk in traditional clogs, and assumed it would take me days to program a stable gait for them, but Bittle just walked fine with them on the first try!
Bittle's pre-built move set is elaborate enough to make videos with, and it was quite simple to reprogram the infrared remote's buttons to activate different moves, so that I could control the robot dog that way while using my smartphone to film.
Laila Clements - Petoi Custom Skill Builder
but you also showcased many different videos:
Custom moves designed with Petoi Skill Composer
Traveling with Bittle/Bittle X open source robot dogs
Laila shared her experienced using the Skill Composer:
I learned to use Skill Composer by just experimenting and playing around. I've used motion editor software on my old AIBOs before, so I already understood how it works. The learning content is already very in-depth. The Skill Composer works beautifully.
I plan to use Bittle and Bittle X for programming. I want to show the world that small robots can do everything large robots can do (and maybe even more!)
Reid Graves - My Bittle Adventures - The First Trilogy
His video is actually the 2nd part of Reid's Pheromone Following and Acorn Collection project where his 1st video won Petoi 2024 Spring Robotics Contest - Bittle/Nybble Got Talent Theme Award.
Reid sheds lights on why he wants to incorporate Multiple Agent Systems with Large Language Models (LLMs):
The new direction involves using an LLM as a high-level path planner. Classical control techniques require preprogramming and are often inflexible, making them impractical for complex, dynamic environments. By combining a classical controller for low-level robotics tasks, such as locomotion, with an LLM for path planning, we can develop a more robust autonomous system.
Incorporating the LLM shifted the project away from the complexities of pheromones and acorn collection. Instead, the focus is now on demonstrating the LLM's path-planning capabilities. The approach involves dividing the camera frame into grids and feeding this information, along with a video feed, to the LLM. The LLM then creates and executes a plan.
For example, imagine two robot dogs: one on top of a Petoi robot box in one grid cell, and another on the ground. The robot on the ground can push boxes to help the first robot move to a different cell. This scenario is well-suited for reasoning-based problem-solving, as preprogramming it would become unmanageable with an increasing number of cells, boxes, and robots.
All winners will also receive a free Petoi t-shirt!
Next Steps
We've reached out to the winners via email to arrange prize delivery.
We will be incorporating media from this contest and media from the past, and producing the OpenCat Robot Around the World Documentary Video. If you have any media to share, please email them to support at petoi.com.
Thank you again to everyone who participated in our contest. Your enthusiasm and creativity were truly inspiring! We appreciate all of your feedback and suggestions on making our contest and products more fun and engaging.
Practice your programmable robot pet coding skills and share your robotics creation on social media and Petoi robot forum.
Stay tuned for our next contest announcement!
If you have any suggestions or are interested in running a robotics contest for your robotics camp or institution, please feel free to contact us.
