The Robonica Roboni-i Programmable RC Robot is pretty awesome!  This robot is a combination of a remote control vehicle and a programmable robot.  (No, really?)  It runs mainly on infrared and touch sensors which give it the ability to roam autonomously, albeit within perimeters set by its colored disks.  (Discussed later.)  Also, Robonica has equipped the Roboni-i with seven pre-programmed games you can play by yourself or with other Roboni-i RC Robots.  Most of them require you to drive over the included colorful disks.  I know you’re excited, but hold your horses.  The magical game playing colorful disks will be discussed next.

Robonica Game Pieces

The Robonica Roboni-i Programmable RC Robot comes with multiple “game pieces.”  A base, three colored disks, a plastic ball, and some other thing that has to do with one of the games.  Phew!  The suspense was killing me.  The controller has a display on it which allows you to change the mode that the Roboni-i Programmable RC Robot is in and it also assists with gameplay.  For example, in one game, the controller will display a certain color and you have to run the robot over that color disk within a certain time limit or you lose.

The Modes

 There are three main modes on the Robonica Roboni-i Programmable RC Robot.  Game Mode, Autonomous Mode, and Normal I’m Driving Around Mode.  Game Mode allows you to choose from seven pre-programmed games and start playing immediately.

WARNING: Engadget reports “solo games did get lame after a while.”  So find a friend to network with!

Autonomous Mode allows the RC toy to explore around and travel to its different disks.  It has a touch sensor on the front of it so that it knows if there’s an object in its path.  Of course, the Robonica Roboni-i only knows that there’s an object there if it has already hit it, which might make some serious wall dents.  Normal I’m Driving Around Mode lets you drive Roboni-i around and just have some fun.  Yay!

Other Sweet Functions

This device has a “turbo” mode which makes it go really, really fast.  Apparently, the more you play with it, the longer it stays in “turbo” mode.  Also, there are two triggers on the remote control.  One makes Roboni-i shake and make a machine-gun-like sound, and the other one syncs it via IR to the home base.  You should do this before you put it into Autonomous Mode or it won’t really know what it’s doing.

WARNING #2:  The programming software is reportedly only windows compatible.  A bummer for  us Mac nuts.

But, if you don’t have Windows, don’t worry.  This robot is still fun without the programming.  In fact, having your child spend hours trying to make this robot go somewhere by forming block programming such as “go forward two seconds” might just cause frustration and wasted time.  The only way I would definitely do the programming aspect of this robot is if my kid had an NXT Lego Mindstorm Robot and actually liked programming it.

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