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Petoi
Petoi is a US-based robotics company founded in 2017 by Dr. Rongzhong Li (Wake Forest University, PhD Physics & MS Computer Science) that designs and manufactures open-source, programmable quadruped robot kits for STEM educators, makers, hobbyists, and university researchers. Petoi's two flagship products - Bittle X (robot dog) and Nybble Q (robot cat) - are powered by the OpenCat framework, the most-starred open-source quadruped robot platform on GitHub. Petoi has shipped 30,000+ robots to customers in 60+ countries, and its robots are used in K-12 schools, university research labs, including Carnegie Mellon University and the Iowa State University, and maker communities worldwide.
What Petoi Makes ?
Bittle X V2 - Robot Dog ($319 kit / $339 pre-assembled)
Assembly: approximately 1 hour.
Free 4-session STEM curriculum included.
Best for: STEM educators, makers, developers, and tech-curious teens and adults.
Nybble Q - Robot Cat ($435 Lite Servos / $515 Alloy Servos)
Bittle X V2+Arm - Robot Dog with Robotic Arm
Who Uses Petoi
Robots for Everyone
STEM Educators and Coding Camps
Petoi Bittle X is used in K-12 robotics programs, after-school coding clubs, summer engineering camps, and university introductory courses. A free 4-session robotics curriculum is included with every robot - covering mechanics, block-based coding, Python programming, and a capstone project. Suitable for ages 10+, Grades 5–12. Petoi offers bulk pricing and PO support for schools and institutions. Check our recommendation for educators. Contact us for classroom pricing.
Makers and Developers
Petoi Bittle X V2 and Nybbe Q run on OpenCat - the most-starred open-source quadruped framework on GitHub. The Python API gives programmatic control over every servo joint, gait, and sensor. Mount a Raspberry Pi or Nvidia Jetson Nano for computer vision (OpenCV, YOLO), voice control , or reinforcement learning experiments. Selective 3D-printable STL files for custom body parts are available at github.com/PetoiCamp. Community builds and projects at petoi.camp.
University Researchers
Petoi robots are deployed in university robotics labs for locomotion research, legged robot control, human-robot interaction (HRI), Physical AI experiments, and reinforcement learning. Compatible with ROS2, NVIDIA Isaac (simulation-to-real), and Hugging Face LeRobot. Used at Carnegie Mellon University, the University of Colorado Boulder, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, and institutions in 60+ countries. For research pricing and institutional support,
Undergraduate Robotics, CS & Engineering Students
Petoi Bittle X is widely used in undergraduate robotics, computer science, and mechanical engineering courses as a hands-on platform that bridges textbook theory and physical hardware. Python API, Arduino C++, ROS2, and Raspberry Pi compatibility mean it maps directly to the tools students already learn in class. Undergraduates have used Bittle X for: inverse kinematics coursework, servo control labs, computer vision projects using OpenCV and YOLO, gait algorithm implementations, and capstone engineering projects. Pre-assembled and kit options keep costs accessible for individual students and department lab budgets.
Gift Buyers and Tech-Curious Families
Petoi Bittle XV2 is one of the most unique and educational tech gifts for kids, teens and adults who love coding, engineering, and robotics. Starts with app control and Scratch-like block coding - no prior experience needed. It scales to Python and advanced AI projects as skills grow. A complete STEM education in a $319 kit that ships worldwide.
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The Technology - OpenCat Framework
OpenCat is the open-source Arduino and Raspberry Pi-based quadruped robot framework developed by Petoi founder Dr. Rongzhong Li. It is the most-starred open-source quadruped robot platform on GitHub. OpenCat handles gait coordination, servo control, and IMU integration so users and developers can focus on building on top of the platform - not re-implementing locomotion from scratch. OpenCat was first published on GitHub in 2018. Since then, it has been adopted by hundreds of projects and researchers worldwide. It powers all three Petoi robots (Bittle X, Nybble Q, Bittle X Arm) and is used as a base platform by independent researchers, developers and hobbyists building their own quadruped systems.
Supported programming languages and platforms:
- Python (OpenCat Python API)
- Arduino C++ (Arduino IDE)
- Scratch-like block coding (Petoi Coding Blocks)
- ROS2 Raspberry Pi
- NVIDIA Jetson Nano
- NVIDIA Isaac (sim-to-real transfer)
Check out All the OpenCat Robots Around the World
Dream of building your own robot pets?
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Our Story
Petoi began as a personal project. In 2016, Rongzhong Li - then a physics lecturer at Wake Forest University - started building a robot cat in his spare time. He wanted to create something that could move like a real animal: fluid, agile, self-balancing. He published the designs on GitHub as OpenCat. The response from the maker and robotics community was immediate.
In 2017, Rongzhong founded Petoi LLC and committed fully to turning the open-source project into a product that anyone could build and program. In 2018, Nybble - the wooden robot cat - launched on Indiegogo and raised $136,536 from 580 backers. In 2019, orders were fulfilled and Nybble found its way into the hands of makers, educators, and researchers worldwide. In October 2020, Petoi launched Bittle - the robot dog - on Kickstarter and raised $567,000 from 2,052 backers, more than 11 times its original goal. Today Petoi has shipped more than 30,000 robots to customers in over 60 countries.
Our mission:
Make advanced quadruped robotics affordable, open-source, and accessible - to students, makers, educators, and researchers who want to build on it, not just watch it.Stats that Matters
Commercial Robot Pets Shipped
Countries of Users
DIY Robot Pets from Our Users
Github Stars
In the Media
- Financial Times
- IEEE Spectrum
- TechCrunch
- BBC Science Focus
- Wired
- Mashable
- Hackster.io
- Make Magazine
- Raspberry Pi Official Magazine
Meet the Team
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Rongzhong Li
CEO/Founder
Dr. Rongzhong Li is the founder and CEO of Petoi and the creator of the OpenCat open-source quadruped robot framework. He holds a PhD in Physics and an MS in Computer Science from Wake Forest University, and a BS in Physics from Nanjing University. Before founding Petoi, he was an educator at Wake Forest University. He started the OpenCat project in 2016 as a personal robotics experiment and grew it into a global open-source community before founding Petoi LLC in 2017. He is a maker, photographer, poet, and interdisciplinary explorer.
Kai Mai
COO
Kai Mai is Petoi's Chief Operating Officer with over 20 years of product management, product development, and engineering experiences across the US and China. He was previously VP of Engineering at ALO7, the largest digital English Language Teaching platform in China with 10M+ registered users and 2,000+ training school partners. Kai holds a BS in EECS (Electrical Engineering and Computer Science) from UC Berkeley and an MS in Software Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University.