Petoi Programmable Robot Pets: Reviewed

Manufacturer: Petoi

Price as tested: $435 Nybble Q, $469 Bittle X V2 + Arm

Link: Petoi Robot Pets

Nybble Q

The Petoi Nybble Q cat is my go-to cool thing to show off to new guests. The servo-packed, palm-sized robot comes with built-in responses to a bunch of voice commands right out of the box, and I had a ton of fun messing around and discovering them. A few minutes of demonstration even convinced a teacher friend to get one for his classroom.

More than an impressive toy, Nybble is programmable via mobile and desktop apps, using Arduino, Python, or Mind+ block coding with accompanying lessons. With sensors and flexible behaviors, Nybble is immediately fun, and has potential for deep exploration.

Though my bots arrived preassembled, I did experience some stumbles with Nybble. The tail wouldn’t wag at first but was quickly healed by moving a servo plug.

I’m impressed by the accuracy of the voice recognition. Despite some amusing misunderstandings (“coffee table” became “be table”), audio commands were accurate enough that I seldom reached for the micro:bit-powered remote.

When a trick went too far, the onboard IMU told the bot it should try to flip back over. It worked well, even though on smooth surfaces it took a few seconds to find its balance.

The wooden Nybble was already a premium over the Bittle dog robot, featuring an extra servo (for tail wagging), distance sensors, and color-changing eyes to indicate good and evil. The Q improves upon the old Nybble with a slick 3D-printed body, an upgraded board, better servos, and voice control. Servo feedback control lets you manually move the limbs to design actions. You can add more compute power with a Raspberry Pi, sharing the cognitive load between it and the BiBoard V1.0.

The added curriculum is a great touch. And when I was confused by hardware documentation, an active online community usually had it covered.

Bittle X V2

The Bittle X V2 dog is upgraded over the basic model with built-in voice control and an upgraded ESP32-based board. It lacks the cat’s ultrasonic eyes, but you can add light, motion, and gesture sensors in the mouth. There’s even an AI camera module.

The priciest option comes with a robot arm where the head would be. Unlockable macros let you pick up and toss around small toys. I was surprised by the strength, but preferred the nimbleness and expandability of Bittle with a head.

These aren’t foolproof consumer products, but more like intermediate projects where someone has done the difficult development, letting you skip to the fun part. You might disassemble some bits to do things like add a Grove sensor. I had to take off Nybble’s back to move a servo connector; it was fast and tool-free, but exposed a delicate ribbon cable. The bots don’t make you assemble any circuit boards, but they don’t lock you out of them either.

A Bittle X V2 kit is available without the arm and is still a solid bot. Nybble’s eyes are a sleeker solution if you need distance sensors for autonomous roaming. But if you want an extra arm or are looking for something more durable, then Bittle might be a better fit. Either Petoi quadruped makes a great starting point for anyone interested in robotics.

This article appeared in Make: Vol 94.