Our pals over at Solarbotics have just announced an awesome new robot kit, Herbie the Mousebot (US$40). The kit uses the Herbie circuit, first developed by Randy Sargent at MIT, and used in several modded versions, including my “Mousey the Junkbot” project from my robot book and MAKE Vol. 2.
This kit looks really cool, adding a mouse-like PCB body that will tickle kids and terrify the housepets. The traditional Herbie circuit has also been modded to include two tactile whiskers in the front and a touch-sensitive tail so that it can work its way out of tight spots.
A portion of sales of Herbie will be donated to the KISS Institute for Practical Robotics, an org that Randy Sargent is involved with, which uses robotics to get kids excited about science, technology, engineering and math.
This kit would make the perfect gift for a kid, or anyone, who’s interested in electronics and robotics, but maybe not confident enough to build a similar project from separate components. Solarbotics is taking pre-orders now and will ship kits out on November 24th.
