Maya is a cute and super-affordable build-it-yourself robot with a growing library of well-designed lessons that will guide you from beginner to advance concepts in coding, electronics, and all things related to making cool things with technology.
If you’ve always wanted to build and learn about robots, but didn’t know where to start or found other platforms too expensive, then Maya is for you.
This kit is recommended for ages 11 and up. If you’re younger, we suggest adult supervision, as Maya has some parts that need careful handling.
Why make robots?
Coding and Algorithms – It’s an essential skill of the future. Coding teaches you how to control technology and not be controlled by it. Maya has easy-to-follow, bite-sized lessons on text-based ,”real-world” programming (not drag-and-drop). Maya also exposes you to some basic “clean code principles” that programming experts use everyday.
Problem-solving and Computational Thinking- Few things can teach you how to solve problems like coding your own robot to solve its own problems. Maya can sense, think, plan, respond, and execute in a logical flow.
Electronics and Physical Computing – With Maya, you don’t just interact with the computer, you interact with the world. Motors, sensors, speakers, LEDs, communication protocols, current, voltage, energy, power – all of these you’ll learn with Maya.
Various Technology, Engineering, Manufacturing Stuff – Even with a simple robot like Maya, there are many levels of abstraction that is usually hidden from you! With Maya’s truly free and always-updated lesson plans, you will learn about all things related to the creation of Maya such as designing Maya’s chassis to manufacturing. We hope to inspire you and enable you to bring your technological ideas to life.
Fun! – Maya was created by people who were once bored and unmotivated young engineering students. Nothing demotivates people to excel like a blackboard with a bunch of equations you don’t get to apply in real-life (yet). With Maya, you immediately see the point and the fruits of what you’re doing.
Why choose Maya?
Truly Free and Growing Library of Always-Updated Lessons – No subscriptions, no extra books to buy or apps to pay for (unless you want a printable PDF copy and solution manual). Our well-designed lessons are free, and available to view before you buy. The lessons are designed to be easily adopted at home or by workshops and after school programs.
Arduino-Based – You should be able to take what you learn and use it. Maya is based on Arduino, a powerful prototyping platform used by real engineers to create almost anything. Learn Arduino from Maya and there’s no limit to what you can create.
Open-Source – We believe that truly owning a product means you can explore everything about it and you can do whatever you want with it. No secret programs, lock-in SDKs or opaque apps with our products. Maya’s software and hardware designs are made available and can be used, changed, and shared by anyone for any purpose. Maya builds upon the open-designs of others, and creations like Maya wouldn’t be possible if it weren’t for the open-sharing of knowledge between creative people.
Expandable, Modular, and Non-Proprietary – Maya has expansion pins that is compatible with most electronic modules out there. You can add Wifi, Bluetooth, radio control, IR control, various sensors, output, motors, anything that uses GPIO, Serial, I2C). Maya’s brain is also removable so you can use it on your other projects if you like. Maya also uses common non-proprietary and readily-available parts so if you break or lose something, you don’t have to buy stuff from us! (Except if you break the robot shield, unless you’d rather have it fabricated and assembled yourself, which is fine, but 20x more expensive)
Super affordable bang-per-buck! – We love all kinds of robots, so if you’d rather buy other robot platforms that’s fine! (We probably have them ourselves). However, if you’re a little tight on the budget, we suggest you try Maya. Even with Maya’s low cost, she’s packed with smarts like four RGB LEDs, a user button, a distance sensor, a sound maker, motors, light sensors, line sensors, and so much more.
Cuteness! – Don’t you think so? It comes with artist-designed masks you can download and print to give it more personality.
...Robot Maya... 