Great excitement at Little Pi Shop HQ today as we took delivery of our first stock of Rapiro robots from Japan.

Rapiro, the cute programmable robot, is the successful Kickstarter project from Shota Ishiwatari, an established Japanese inventor, previously know for the Necomimi robotic cat ears.

Not just for the techsavvy, designed to be assembled using only a screwdriver, Rapiro works straight out of the box with a pre-programmed Rapiro board, so that non-engineers and children can have a go.

What makes him really interesting though, is that you can also use him with a Raspberry Pi and a Camera Module. Fully articulated, he comes with a total of 12 servo motors, one for the neck, one at the waist, four used in the two feet, and the final six for the two arms.

Totally customisable, he is a great real world project for enthusiasts and students to test their programming skills! Retailing at just over £300, Rapiro is a great example of a low cost education platform that allows for students to explore cross-curricular STEM subjects of Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths.

Every school should have one! Contact us for more information on Rapiro and our other kits.