So lets recap the first week of our kickstarter, we basically got our press release posted out to over 50+ places across the US. We appeared in various publications such as Robohub, Atari.Ru, and Robotics.com.ua.

Who's talking about Muribot

Robohub - http://robohub.org/muribot-bringing-university-level-robotics-to-consumers-of-all-abilities/

Colorado News Desk - http://www.coloradonewsdesk.com/story/35912/muribot-robotic-educational-platform-launches-on-kickstarter.html

AIDreams.co.uk - http://aidreams.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=8176.msg34142#.VUqfp_mrTIU

Softmachine.net - http://www.softmachine.net/2015/05/muribot-bringing-university-level-robotics-to-consumers-of-all-abilities/

Atari.Ru - http://atari.ru/nauchnye-roboty-muribot-uchebnyj-komplekt-dlya-postroeniya-robotov/

Robotics.com.ua - http://robotics.com.ua/news/research_robots/4517-muribot_training_package_for_building_robots

As far as interest goes we are great! Lots of people are talking about Muribot and we're getting e-mails nonstop. But there's a problem, we have a fatal lack of backers currently. With our Twitter followers and Facebook fans combined, we have 256 people following us! If all of you guys pledged toward the $150 Build-Your-Own Muribot kit, we'd be 96% funded! If you all pledged toward the $250 fully assembled package, we'd be 160% funded!

We've gotten quite a bit of feedback, mostly positive but also some negative ones, and I'd like to address some questions raised by the community.

Concerns

Q.Without mounting points how are we supposed to mount our own hardware?

We actually have mounting points.We will be providing a 3D printable bracket that you will be able to attach your projects too. You can either print it yourself or buy it from us. This bracket clips onto the Muribot and provides a solid place to mount your hardware.

Q. Why the I2C protocol and not SPI which is faster?

Great questions! We chose 400khz I2C because it can be sampled on most inexpensive oscilloscopes very easily, the protocol itself is very simple to learn and to read on a scope as well. This way by probing the I2C expansion port an educator could easily demonstrate the protocol in action.

Why not an ARM processor which only costs a few dollars more?

The Muribot platform is supposed to facilitate the exploration of embedded platforms, to that end an ARM would be like a sledgehammer to a peanut. However, it's trivial to reprogram the PIC as an I2C slave and connected it to an ARM processor add-on. If you have a good idea, let us know at http://moarobotics.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=2

If you have a question for Mid-Ohio Area Robotics, leave a comment!!!! We're here to answer all your questions 24/7 while the kickstarter is going so drop us a line!