UBTECH Alpha1 Pro - programmable robot for children from 8 to 150

It is no secret that in our time, children receive much more than their parents had in their childhood. Is it good or bad? It’s not for us to judge, disputes about this are not the first year. The farther, the more in each family becomes electronic devices and even robots. What one could only dream about before is quite accessible today (with some reservations, of course) for a very wide range of customers.

The fact that modern high-tech toys is a big plus, since children can play learning the basics of electronics and programming. One of these cool toys is the robot UBTECH Alpha1 Pro. Programmable robot that boasts a set of interesting features.

The company UBTECH creates robots for several years. It also makes relatively simple designers that can be turned into a Voltron in almost anything and complex functional devices - for example, the Cruzr robot, which can help at home or in the office. The fact that the robot drives for coffee to the nearest coffee shop can not be counted on, but to find an interlocutor in it is not a problem.
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What is in the box?

The complete set of the robot is minimalist - it is he himself, the charger, the USB cable and the manual (read without fail, yes!). The system is controlled with the help of an application for mobile devices - there is an option for both PCs and mobile platforms.



To get started, you just need to download the application and turn on the robot, everything is as usual. However, the setup process runs smoothly, a lot of time is not required.

Design

The robot looks menacing. It is good that he is small, so if you met him somewhere in the dark, you could be scared. Alpha1 Pro humanoid: two arms, two legs, head. There is also a “backpack”, similar to the astronauts' knapsack - this is the unit used to control, charge and turn on the robot.



On the unit there is a power button, stop, power port and mini-USB port (yes, not micro, to our surprise). Whether the robot is active can be judged by its LED.

The assembly of the robot quality. We had to overdo it in the hands of a bunch of different gadgets. This robot leaves behind the impression of a good assembly: no backlash, no gaps - nothing. Material - aluminum and plastic. It is not recommended to drop the robot from the fifth floor (and other heights), but it can withstand the physical impact that is unavoidable during its “work”. Over time, scratches can form, but what to do - the operation of gadgets always leaves traces.



Our robot has servo drives of as many as 16. Three are in the hands and five in the legs. There are a number of restrictions on freedom of movement, but this is not essential, so that the robot fully fulfills its main purpose - it kills humans, which allows you to have fun and get new information. There are LEDs that are particularly spectacular in the dark. The robot can reproduce sound - for this it is equipped with a speaker (it is located right in the head). Servomotors work noisily, the audibility of the sounds made by the robot is quite low.

And what can he do?

When you exit the box, the robot can do exercises, show asanas from yoga, dance or fight (it shows the skills of a fighter without casualties). The user can add to the list by programming various movements.

By the way, it's great if there are several robots. In this case, they can show dances in a group or fight. Well, if all this is not like - you can play football. A little later, the creators of the robot promise to add features - in any case, to make the dances more exciting.





In order to program the movement, do not need a huge store of knowledge. Here everything is scripted - to create a new movement you need to execute it with the help of software, and then “remember”. Who has a good imagination, can wonderfully have fun creating a dynamic robot dancer or gymnast. Movement can be limited in time.





This is what we are talking about the phone. If you work with a robot from a PC or laptop, then the possibilities are even greater. The program for the PC provides a 3D model, by controlling which, you can create scripts for the movement of the robot.

Unfortunately, the system does not have any sensors that allows it to stop near the wall and not to rest its head. So when working with a robot, it is worth bearing in mind.

And you can also record your voice so that the robot learns to tell stories or even sing. In this case, there is simply no limit to creativity. Well, there is, but this limit will manifest itself very soon.

And what else?

Difficult to call a robot. At the same time, the basic set of movements can be supplemented as you like. A child (and an adult) can spend a lot of time programming movements.

The work done can be saved by sharing script files with other users. So in order to understand what a robot can do and its limits of its capabilities, you should download a couple of complex scripts, looking at what the robot will do.



Yes, by the way, in the robot's “backpack” there is a battery. It lasts about an hour of active work. During idle time, energy is consumed less, although it is worth bearing in mind that even then the battery explodes.

Our assessment

We played with the robot for a couple of days and we can say with confidence that for the child (the children also took part in the study) it is an interesting, but expensive toy. It is unlikely that you can play with UBTECH Alpha1 Pro all day, but a couple of hours a day is quite possible.

With the help of a robot, you can instill in your child an interest in electronics and robotics. When the possibilities of this particular robot turn out to be small, you can get down to serious things like programming and working with electronics.

The instructions say that the audience of the robot is children over 8 years old, but given the current acceleration, you can make an amendment and say that in 5-6 years old kids (and many at this age can read and write, plus work with a computer, do not speaking of mobile devices) will also be able to use the capabilities of UBTECH Alpha1 Pro .

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