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Cubelets is a snap-together robotics kit made of uniformly sized and shaped modules, each of which performs a single function, similar to the excellent LittleBits Gizmos and Gadgets Kit ($198.98 at Amazon)(Opens in a new window) . But unlike LittleBits, which has a number of different parts, Cubelets consists enitrely of large plastic cubes that present little choking hazard, making it safe for children four and up. We looked at the $499.95 Cubelets Twenty Kit, and found it wanting in design and functionality. It’s an interesting diversion for very young children interested in robotics, but you’re better off waiting a few years and introducing them to the much more powerful LittleBits platform, which can be used for robotic and electronic development for far less money.
Design and Cubes
The modules (or Cubelets, in Modular Robotic’s parlance, though we’ll use cubes for short) are organized into three different categories: Sense, Action, and Think. Sense cubes, as you’d expect, each have some method of detecting the outside world (there’s a light sensor, a distance sensor, a temperature sensor, and a manual dial). Action cubes can make sound, light, or motion. And Think cubes each perform a basic logic function: There are inverse, maximization, and minimization functions, plus blocker and passive cubes. A rechargeable battery cube provides power.
Individual cubes don’t do much, but you can snap them to other cubes thanks to strong magnetic connectors on their faces. The connectors hold the cubes together securely, and also ensure that electricity is conducted between cubes through metal contacts.
The Twenty Kit that we reviewed includes: a bar graph cube, a battery cube, two blocker cubes, a brightness sensor, two distance sensors, two drive cubes, a flashlight cube, a knob cube, two inverse logic cubes, a maximum logic cube, a minimum logic cube, two passive logic cubes, a rotate cube, a speaker cube, and a temperature sensor cube, plus four Lego adapters for combining your projects with Lego bricks.
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Modular Robotics also offers a $59.95 Bluetooth cube(Opens in a new window) (which is notably not included in the $500 Cubelets Twenty Kit), allowing you to have a very modest level of control over the various functions by connecting the cubes to Android and iOS apps. The company also offers a Cubelets Six Kit(Opens in a new window) for $159.95 and a Cubelets 12 Kit(Opens in a new window) for $329.95.
Sense Cubes
Of the sense cubes, the distance sensor has the most potential for project fun. With it, you can wave your hand in front of your creations and they will move or light up in response. The kit I bought came with a defective sensor, which was very hard to establish with certainty because every sensor behaved temperamentally depending on how well it connected to the battery cubelet. A brief stroll through the Modular Robotics forum revealed that I wasn’t alone: Other users have also received defective distance sensors, which suggests some level of haste on the manufacturing side.
The light sensor is interesting, and there’s some degree of satisfaction to be had by kids in solving the puzzle of inverting the signal to make a flashlight that functions in the dark, but the thrill fades quickly. The temperature sensor isn’t as useful; it’s hard to imagine an enjoyable project for children that hinges on the amount of heat a robot detects.
Action Cubes
The motion cubes are frustratingly unidirectional. Drive cubes can only move forward unless you physically turn them around, and rotation cubes only spin in one direction. They give you the ability to create a “robot” (really, a kind of far less articulated Minecraft monolith) that can go in a single direction until it has a reason to stop, either from a sense cube or through physical resistance.
The only variable response you can get from the action and sense cubes is by increasing or decreasing the signal strength. This will slow the motion cubes, dim the flashlight cube, or decrease the number of bars on the bar graph cube.
Think Cubes
The maximization and minimization cubes simply apply a step function to the input signal, which results in more of a stark manifestation of your project’s behavior. The block cube can be used as shielding or insulation, but in a construction that involves that level of complexity, the end result ends up being unruly due to size, and it’s hard to figure out exactly where to place the blocker to achieve the behavior you’re looking for.
The reverse cube is the most interesting. It lets you invert the signal being sent by the sensors to the cube. But, again, you can really only make a light brighter in darkness, or a motor slower in the face of opposition. So you quickly run out of opportunity for invention.
It’s hard to understand why these weren’t the typical AND, NOT, OR, and XOR gates that one typically expects, and that are available as part of the LittleBits platform. LittleBits, in contrast to Cubelets, features several options fror programming both with direct logic gates and various methods like If This Then That (IFTTT) recipes and Arduino. The modules can also be controlled with much more granularity and precision, through a variety of sensors and controls.
Building
To create a robot that turns to avoid objects, I attached sensors and reverse cubes in such a way that the drive cubelet, oriented in a forward direction, would stop if the robot were faced with an obstacle. A separate drive cube, oriented in the opposite direction, would rotate the other way until the obstacle was no longer detected by the sensors, at which time the original drive cube would kick in again. This meant that the inactive drive was just a drag on the system until activated, which caused erratic motion and unpredictable behavior.
Bluetooth and Programming
Realizing the limitations on invention inherent in the Cubelet’s design, and reading descriptions of the Bluetooth cubelet as offering remote control and the ability to reprogram various Cubelets, I sprang for the $60 Bluetooth unit.
After upgrading all of the other cubes to Cubelet OS4, and installing the free iOS app, I realized that the Bluetooth cube effectively serves as a remote knob. It let me increase or decrease the signal strength of each cube individually, so my creations could move forward, spin, or light up with more or less intensity.
The Modular Robotics website advertises the coming release of a new version of its Cubelet Studio application, but news about the release of that application has been very sparse since the end of 2015. The previous version gave users more control over Cubelet behavior, so it’ll be interesting to see what the next update brings.
In the meantime, I did find a Node.js project(Opens in a new window) which exposes some of the underlying interface of the cubes, but the experience of forcing my Mac to pair with and connect to the Bluetooth Cubelet was frustrating and yielded inconsistent results.
Conclusions
The idea of a modular system of robotics is a good one, and the mechanism for connecting each Cubelet to another by magnet is clever, satisfying, and child-friendly. But the limitations of the system, combined with its high price point, are ultimately deal breakers. Cubelets will likely only prove worthwhile after the release of an updated programming interface, a more robust API, enhanced functionality, and a drop in price. If you’re an aspiring roboticist, or if you have very young children interested in constructing simple machines, LittleBits or Lego Mindstorms ($800.00 at Amazon)(Opens in a new window) offer many more options for building and programming robots. They’re accessible to nearly all ages, and cost much less than the Cubelet Twenty Kit.
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The payoff for the Cubelets Twenty Kit from Modular Robotics isn’t what you’d expect from a $500 robotics kit. You’re better off investing in Lego Mindstorms or LittleBits, which offer more flexibility and control for less money.
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Source link : https://www.pcmag.com/reviews/modular-robotics-cubelets-twenty-kit