Nybble the Robo-Cat pounces into homes and hearts.

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?A purring, prowling robotic feline named Nybble aims to become the perfect pet for both coders and cat lovers. This nimble quadruped from startup Petoi can sneak its way into hearts without triggering allergies.

Shaped like a playful kitten, Nybble sports eleven joints enabling lifelike motions from stretching to balancing on its hind legs. Powered by servo motors with built-in controllers, each joint bends smoothly and precisely based on programmed behaviors. Users can command the poseable bot like a furry marionette using Petoi's apps and code libraries.

But Nybble aspires to be more than a programmable puppet. Petoi designed its signature bot to exhibit cat-like personalities and interact with owners seeking robotic companionship. Out of the box, Nybble can roam autonomously, navigate objects, sense being petted or detect hand gestures signaling play. Users can develop more behaviors by tweaking open source scripts.

Launched via Kickstarter under the name Bittle, this nimble creature resonated with backers. Raising over $500,000 demonstrated demand for accessible home robots beyond virtual assistants. Now rebranded as Nybble and upgraded for reliability, it highlights goals to bring receptive robot friends to consumers.

Petoi’s founder and CEO sees great potential in social assistance robots, citing surveys showing half of pet owners would purchase a robotic animal. “Instead of replacing pets, robots can complement them,” said Rongzhong Li. “There’s also a much larger market for those who can’t have real pets due to constraints.”

Under its synthetic fur, Nybble incorporates modular hardware allowing hobbyist hacking. The main controller board sporting an Atmega328P chip coordinates lower-level joint processors via serial communication. Users can swap in alternative controllers like Raspberry Pi according to project needs, with all components interfacing through published APIs.

This open ecosystem provides a gateway for new users to gain coding skills in the process of customizing behaviors. Nybble operates across major programming languages while integrating with electronics kits used in STEM education. Experimenting with existing behaviors or crafting new responses offers interactive lessons in computational thinking.

Hands-on learning opportunities have drawn positive feedback from parents and teachers using Nybble. But Petoi also courts individual consumers seeking affection, noting surveys showing 70% of owners bond emotionally with technology. The company optimizes Nybble’s sounds and movement for building connections, essential to its goals of mainstream adoption.

As Nybble pounces into homes, Petoi envisions more intelligent skills maturing through partnerships and cloud connections. But user acceptance hinges on perfecting current capabilities before chasing sci-fi dreams, Li stressed. “Advanced AI like computer vision risks overselling early and disappointing users,” he said. “We’re focused on showing measurable value with existing robot functions first.”

Petoi has shipped over 15,000 robots globally so far. As Nybble curls up with more owners, the startup aims to continue gently nudging social machinery toward sensitive futurism. Robo-pets may not yet replace real ones, but this playful creature makes evident they can still capture hearts.

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