Marty is a Cute, Customizable Walking Robot

Meet Marty, a fully-programmable robot for kids, Makers, educators, or just about anybody looking for an adorable robot. Marty, who looks like a character straight out of TV, is designed to make learning programming, electronics, and mechanical engineering a fun and engaging process.

Right out-of-the-box, Marty can be controlled remotely over Wi-Fi, but can also be customized using a variety of programming languages. Kids and beginners can learn with Scratch, where coding is as simple as clicking and dragging blocks. Meanwhile, more advanced users can turn to Python and C++, or state of the art robotics tools such as ROS.

When it comes to other STEM-focused robots on the market, Marty’s got a leg up in the competition. No seriously, his legs are quite unique. Each one has three motors: one for moving forwards and backwards, one for side-to-side movement, and one for turning. This enables him to perform all kinds of movements — walking, kicking, and dancing.

Moreover, all of Marty’s plastic parts can be 3D printed, and the CAD files will be made available. This means you can personalize your cute robot as much as you’d like. For instance, you could make a four-legged Marty, a wheeled Marty, a bigger Marty, make arms with closable grippers — or anything else you can think of!

In terms of his hardware, Marty is based on an ARM Cortex-M4 MCU which takes care of all low-level functions, generating movements in real-time, reading sensors, connecting to Wi-Fi, and handling the servos. The control board features an accelerometer for measuring tilt and acceleration, a beeper for making noise, and plenty of ports for additional sensors and motors. It is also designed to support a Raspberry Pi — providing a power and data link. Marty is even compatible with Arduino, BeagleBone, and other popular DIY hardware.

Looking for an adorable robot sidekick? Marty is currently on Indiegogo.