Every Bot Was Kung Fu Fighting

It is not at all uncommon for an electronics hobbyist to have a cat that “helps” with their projects by laying on their desk to chew on wires and push things on the floor. If you do not have a personal assistant of this sort, due to allergies or other concerns, maybe you would consider a desktop robot? If so, a recent Kickstarter campaign by Wair Living may have just what you need. They have created a pocket-sized robot called the KT2 Kungfu Turtle, and as you might guess from the name, its level of helpfulness is about on par with a cat.

The KT2 is largely a desktop toy. It can walk around and make itself a nuisance until you give it a little pet, or it might do some tricks to entertain you. When you tire of these antics, the robot also comes preloaded with 99 interactive games that you can play with it. The real fun comes when you get two or more of these robots together. They might have an epic kung fu battle, or play a game like tug of war for your entertainment.

It is not only fun and games with the KT2 Kungfu Turtle, however. The robot is also meant to enhance your productivity at work. It comes equipped with a Pomodoro timer to break up your work into manageable chunks, and KT2 will even give you periodic reminders to do a little stretching after being parked at your desk for too long. For the aspiring hacker, KT2 can also turn into a coding buddy that teaches basic software engineering concepts with the Blockly visual programming editor.

The tiny quadrupedal robot is powered by an ESP32-S3 microcontroller running at 240 MHz, which also provides Wi-Fi and Bluetooth wireless communication capabilities. A 6-axis inertial measurement unit, touch sensor, and microphone give KT2 an awareness of its surroundings for the built-in functions, or for custom-designed applications. An onboard rechargeable battery provides for about four hours of operating time.

Programming coordinated movements in a quadrupedal robot can be very challenging, so the team has included what they call TurtleOS to simplify development. TurtleOS handles all of the tiny, real-time adjustments that need to be made to maintain balance and avoid obstacles, even on uneven surfaces. Purchasers also get free, over-the-air updates to the robot’s software, so its capabilities should become more advanced over time.

The available rewards presently start at $99 for a single KT2 Kungfu Turtle robot kit, which you will need to assemble on your own. There are also premium kits available with extra accessories, and multi-pack kits if you want an army of cooperative (or kung fu fighting!) robots.