KittenBot Future Board ESP32 is an AIoT Python education kit specifically developed for educational purposes. AIoT is when AI meets IoT and hence, is called as Artificial Intelligence of things. Based on AIoT, the board is suitable for kids to learn and experience topics on IoT and AI. The KittenBot Future Board is based on ESP32-WROVER-B.
Features of KittenBot
The KittenBot Future Board ESP32 has a 160×128 TFT Screen that enables creation with real-time feedback. This makes sure that readings such as that of sensors are real-time and easy. Further, the board has a speech recognition module that is capable of recognizing English and Chinese. The board allows storage expansion through an SD card slot onboard. This feature also provides functions like storing multiple programs and selecting one to run whenever desired.
The Future board has a 40P edge connector that is compatible with various expansion boards. As the board can be connected to the existing expansion boards in educational institutes, it reduces teaching cost and improves effectiveness. Besides, there is an MQTT server provided that eliminates hassles due to different MQTT servers. Thus, with help of the KittenBot Board IoT projects can be done easily.
Other features include three WS2812 LED, Light Sensor and Temperature Sensor. Moreover, built-in Wi-Fi (2.4-2.5 GHz) and Bluetooth allows one to explore IoT applications. Also, there is an accelerometer, magnetometer, buttons and passive electromagnetic buzzer on the board.
Technical Characteristics and Software Implementation
The KittenBot Future Board ESP32 weighs about 22.6g. It’s a small-sized bot with dimensions of about 51.6 x 51.6 x 11 mm. In addition, the KittenBot Future Board ESP32 has a front side made up of ABS plastic. “The backside is exposed on purpose to let educators and individuals teach and understand knowledge about sensors and circuits directly and to minimize the board volume.” The Future board has two antennas at the top which give it a futuristic appearance. Two Bots can interact with each other through wireless radio.
The maximum working voltage of the board is 3.6V. There are two ways to supply power to the board. Firstly, via Type C USB which can be connected to a computer system. Secondly, through a 3.7V rechargeable Lithium Battery. This allows mobility to the board and hence can be used anywhere. Board has a Flash ROM of 4M and RAM of 8M. Moreover, the Future Bot works on a frequency of about 240MHz and supports wireless program downloading. This enables one to program on tablets and smartphones. The board supports both graphical and Text-based programming. Kittenblock (based on Scratch 3.0) and KittenCode (based on Python3 & MicroPython) are used for programming. Besides, the Future bot runs on FutureOS GUI.
One can buy the KittenBot Future Board ESP32 from the official site. The Future board costs around $29.99. Further, the consumer can choose between the two colours available being Blue and Cream. The sources for all pictures and technical details is the official site.
Sanskriti Sawant is a student of Electronics and Telecommunication engineering. She is passionate about Computer architecture, VLSI and plans to major in them. She is working on HDL languages and FPGA’s.
