Meet Bracket Bot - the affordable robot kit created by a University of Waterloo student

Brian Machado originally built his robot, the Bracket Bot, to prank fellow students on campus at the University of Waterloo — he never imagined it could turn into a business.

"I wanted to make 10 or 15 of them and have them drive around campus and talk to people. I thought that would be really funny," the mechatronics engineering student said.

"Then in the process of making them cheap and easy to assemble so that I could personally make a bunch of them, a lot of my friends kept like asking to build one themselves... so that's how it turned into a kit."

The University of Waterloo student created the robot kits as part of his final year project. He says it's a cheap option for hobbyists looking to build and code a basic robot.

"It's just a battery, an on-off switch and a very simple speaker. There are actually Hoverboard motors... and a Raspberry Pi, which is just a really common small computer," he said. "It's as simple as a robot could possibly be."

Machado's Bracket Bot also has a small camera to help it see. It can also listen and talk, engaging in short conversations in various different voices.

The customizable robot kit will cost $500 — a price tag Machado says is much lower than what's currently available on the market, where it can cost thousands of dollars. 

'Human-sized, skinny little robot'

Machado says all you need to build the Bracket Bot is a bit of coding expertise and at least three hours of spare time.

"[The kit] contains everything you need to build the human-sized, skinny little robot," he said. "By the end of the three hours, you should have a driving, walking, talking, listening robot that you can really easily program to do whatever you want."

John Zelek is an associate professor of systems design engineering at the University of Waterloo.

He says the Bracket Bot is a neat toy for hobbyists that is comparable to a few other products on the market right now with brands like Duckietown and TurtleBot that offer kits to make robots at a similar price point.

"[At] the low end, there are robots in the range of $200 to $500 for hobbyists to work with. Then there are robots that go up to $150,000. So it's quite a range," Zelek said.

Machado says the next step is to test the Bracket Bot further before making it available for sale. Those interested can sign up to be on the online waitlist.