The First Misty Robothon — No Robotics Experience Necessary

Some of you may be eager to tell a robot where to go and what to do (politely). Others may have significant doubts about the toil and trouble involved. I’m here to tell you about Misty Robotics’ first hackathon and let you know that you, too, can teach a robot some new skills.

On December 10, 2017, it was hard to say who was more excited: The thirty hackers and makers who showed up at Misty HQ? The Misty engineers who finally got to see how real devs interacted with their work? Misty herself ?

The hackathon participants did include members of the robotics industry, yes. But they also included people who had only previously coded web pages. They all quickly broke into teams as Misty engineers introduced everyone to Misty’s client app and her Blockly interface, as well as her JavaScript and REST APIs. Over the course of seven hours, there were smiles at a miniature Samuel L. Jackson roaming the floor, thrilled exclamations at seeing code execute in the real world, and, yes, a few cries from engineers when a robot (nearly) drove off a table.

At the end of the day, Misty was a better, smarter robot with five new skills. One of our favorites intended to give Misty the ability to identify what containers could be put into their recycle bin. Others included a goal execution system, a directed mapping routine, and a skill where Misty was VERY excited about the impending arrival of pizza. On a lighter note, one of the biggest crowd pleasers was Misty’s choreographed ‘dance’ to a classic Backstreet Boys song. Especially impressive, given the team responsible had no previous experience with robots.

Holding tight to our Sphero roots, a lucky few walked away with Sphero Mini’s and an excellent ugly sweater just in time for the holidays. We are so grateful for everyone who attended — our sincere thanks for spending your Sunday with us. We had an incredible time working alongside you and hearing your thoughts on what the future could look like with a robot in every home.

The Future Is Yours

So, how about you? You may not be able to program all robots, but I’m pretty sure you can program Misty. Look at it this way, if you can think of a scenario where a robot would be useful, for instance making sure your dog doesn’t make it onto your couch (or you want to catch the furball in the act), you will be able to quickly test your idea and add that interaction into a collection of skills that make your robot unique. The future ‘killer app’ of robotics has yet to be discovered, you might have the idea or interaction that everyone wants!

We’ll continue to host events so people can come and hang out, talk about robots, technology, and what the future holds. Keep watching our Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram accounts when we announce future events.

And… we’re getting closer to launch, so don’t forget to sign up for our email list to keep in touch when we announce future news!