DJI is unleashing a new drone on the world this week, only instead of taking to the skies, this little robot stays on the ground.
The new RoboMaster S1 is an educational robot designed to teach kids how to code. It packs brushless motors, a gimbal and chassis that can move in all directions. DJI built S1 to be used in interactive modes for programming as well as play. Once you assemble your robot you can battle other S1 owners in Mario Kart style games that look fun as hell.
Take a look at the cool stuff it can do:
The S1 (short for Step 1) was inspired by DJI’s annual RoboMaster competition held in China every year where students build their own battlebots. DJI says it created the S1 to make robotics and programming more accessible and entertaining to kids. It’s also a pretty fun toy for adults to play with too.
Armed with 46 programmable components and 31 sensors, S1 can perform six recognition tasks: line follow, vision marker recognition, follow mode on specific people, clap recognition, gesture recognition and object recognition. Those tasks can then be combined and manipulated to complete different missions or play games.
For advanced users, you can also create your own functions from Scratch 3.0 or Python to completely customize the S1. The RoboMaster app comes with a “Road to Mastery” course that presents new project-based challenges to push your education.
RoboMaster S1 goes on sale today in the U.S., China and Japan for $499.
