Do You Like Robots? How About Crafting with Cardboard? Then Smartibot Is for You!

Usually when people think about robots, they picture large metal or plastic machines that you’d need some serious tools to build. But, there is no reason that they have to be, and that’s particularly true if you just want to have fun and don’t require anything industrial-grade. We’ve seen a growing trend in cardboard crafting for electronics projects, and now Smartibot wants to bring that low-cost construction to robotics.

Smartibot, which is currently being crowdfunded on Kickstarter, is an AI-enabled platform that lets you create robots out of cardboard. It uses a central circuit board that contains sensors and motor drivers, and can simultaneously control up to 10 servos and four DC motors. With the companion app, your smartphone can pair with the board to act as either a remote for the robot, or as an onboard AI brain that can identify faces, animals, and common objects.

The real fun, however, is in the various designs you can make out of cardboard. You’ll receive three cardboard robot kits with your Smartibot: an AI rover, a beverage-carrying teabot, and an adorable unicorn robot. Once you’re done with those, you can reuse the electronics in your own cardboard creations, or expand into more unusual building materials like potatoes or clay. You can even hack the toys lying around your house (as long as they run on four or fewer AA batteries) by connecting Smartibot to their motors.

Super early birds can get a basic kit for $40, and rewards should ship in December.