It's Too Expensive To Get Into Robotics So These Students Designed A $75 Robot Kit

Lavanya and Melissa Jawaharlal are the two-sister team who want to make entry level robotics much more affordable.

They co-founded Stem Center USA as a means of providing hands-on robotics education for young students, and their Kickstarter project, the $75 Pi-Bot, will make this an especially achievable goal.

Named for its resemblance to the Greek letter, the Pi-Bot aims to be a new type of robotics kit. As Melissa explains in the pitch video below, current robotics kits are "either too complicated or overly simplistic, but always much too expensive."

The Pi-Bot was designed with an eye towards affordability and ease of construction while still employing real-world components like sonar and light sensors, as well as a four-speed gearbox that Kickstarter backers will build from scratch.

Here's what the completed bot looks like:

The sisters have already met their fundraising goal of $70,000, so if you want one of these for yourself, check out their Kickstarter page to contribute before the campaign ends (there are seven days left!).