You know, a couple of months ago, I would have been really excited about this. Right now, it kind of a mixed bag. It is good in that robotics will become more visible with a company like Intel pushing it. Its very expensive though for what it is. The ability to control a robot with a I7 computer with say 32 gig of ram and running SSD drives, with the flexibility to run .net code to say connect to databases, the internet, facial recognition or just about anything else you want to do, is a more logical step to me. A machine like this would cost a couple thousand dollars, but that would leave $13,000 - $14,000 for building the robot compared to the cost of the research version. A home version for $1,600 seams about right I guess. I have dropped over $1,400 on my wall-e project so far, but about 1/3 of that is tools for making other robots.

Interesting to see, but it will be more interesting to see DJ and team taking on more mainstream companies.

I will be working with a private school to setup a robotics program. They use lego mindstorm stuff currently with a teacher that is not familiar at all with robotics. We will be using EZ-B V4's with ARC and the SDK for an advanced class. If I can take a 4th or 5th grader, and have them make a robot do almost anything on their own, the odds of keeping them involved and learning for an extended period of time becomes far greater than trying to take a high school student and teach them C.

I did not know that Intel had that coming! Thanks for sharing.

hey @d,cochran, look for an email from me!

D.Cochran, thanks for the info! We can surely take on large companies - such as Intel - with our technology, but that means making them aware of it. They have a much larger advertising budget than we could ever afford. They also have a huge reputation, when media companies hear the name "Intel" they jump all over it.

The technology at EZ-Robot surpasses that of Intel in Robotics - and google for that matter. The ability we provide anyone to build amazing robotics seems to be a secret because not everyone knows who we are... Specifically Intel .. Last week I added Brian Johnson and Intel CEO Brian Krzanich to LinkedIn. They accepted, so I've been sending messages daily telling them to look at EZ-Robot because we can make Jimmy do amazing things. They haven't replied

I sometimes chuckle to myself... The number of amazing robots on this website VS. the "robots" on the internet. Make Magazine is a friend of mine on Facebook, and last week was robot week - the robots and stories they shared are embarrassing compared to the caliber of EZ-Robots from people like you.

All of these companies Parallax, Make, Trossen, Etc... share really old styled boring robots. Even the video with the Trossen owners talking about Jimmy - what year are they from? They mention Speech recognition like it's a brand new technology! And we've had it since day 1. The items they mention about Jimmy are things EZ-Robot owners expect from robotics. Heck, with EZ-Robot you can make a custom Mobile App to control your robot without even touching the keyboard!

The point is, we have the technology but now we are working on ways to make people aware of it.

With the number of real robot features we easily provide, I don't know why anyone who is interested in robotics would dismiss us... That is, if they truly cared about the future of robotics!

EZ-Robot really is the best kept secret you want everyone to know about!

I started with an EZ-B, no robot experience and not even any research in to anything else. I found DJ's Omnibot, I was impressed, I bought the EZ-B, I pretty much started out expecting things of the quality found on here.

A year on I looked at Arduino and other hardware/software. I seriously thought the websites hadn't been updated in years since everything was so far behind ARC. Let's just say I was disappointed with what I saw. EZ-Robots, you ruined me for everyone else

Heck Rich, I don't even have an EZ-B yet and I am sold just from the ARC tools. I am really thinking about picking up a 3D printer and printing the bodies of some of these other robots just to be able to have the framework to build off of, but put an EZ-B in them. This would allow them to do amazing things instead of just walk and barely recognize voices.

I cant wait for my V4 so that I can complete Wall-E and go onto other, more impressive projects.

For the classes, here is what I am thinking.

Elementary program (4th grade and 5th grade) - use the platforms on this website to introduce students to robotics and allow them to get to know ARC controls. Some will take off with it and run.

Jr High (6-8) - Build either a Wall-E or some other type of 3D printed robot like RAPIRO or Jimmy.

Sr High (9-12) - work on a 4 year project as a team to build a InMoov robot starting with the hands and working their way up to the head and then down the body.

Right now, this schools robotics program is kind of like almost every other one. They go to botball competitions and that's about it. They haven't made the transition mentally yet to realize that robots can do a lot more than just a simple task. I don't think that many schools have realized this yet and I know that most of the public hasn't realized it yet, especially in the central part of the United States.

The sad thing is that last years graduating class had 5 National Merit Scholars out of 14 graduating. The school has some incredibly intelligent students, but they are not being exposed to something that is mentally stimulating and challenging enough to help them truly excel. To me, in a setting like this, robotics is about far more than physics, electronics, sculpting, modifying or building. It is about the social interaction and problem solving challenges that these kids will be faced with. Its about the older students getting to mentor the younger ones. Its about the brain working on a problem with others and overcoming the challenge. The final product is cool and will bring others to the program, but the growth that these kids unknowingly will experience is amazing to me.

I have two former students that are going to be helping me with the program. One is in school studying computer animation. The other is in school to be an EE. Both went through the robotics program at this school and both are crazy excited to help out.

I honestly think this is how you get your product to spread. Once a kid starts doing amazing things with it, the next kid will want it. I am working hard to get Wall-E ready to be shown at a parents night. I am sure that once seen, and the videos that I will show, I will be doing all that I can to not over fill the spots available.

@d.cochran, that's excellent to hear of your initiative. I'm really excited for your students - I am unable to imagine how creative they will be with EZ-Robot power in their hands!

We have two partner education companies working with us - Jake may connect you with one of them depending on your geographical location.

This is all good news. Some of us have been into the robotics arena experimentally and have tried the C programming, and compiling programs and downloaded them into different front ends and eeproms. With the introduction of the EZ-Robot platform so much more time can be spent in designing features, functions, and tasks to install into a robot that has either been built from scratch or modification of an existing platform.

Modifying/hacking one particular robotic platform, (iRobot - Roomba and Create) should help make this EZ-B platform become more known to the general Roomba robotics arena and all the interested robotic builders out there.