DJI RoboMaster S1

For those that aren&#x27;t aware, this is designed for the RoboMaster robotics league in China, which is sponsored (owned?) by DJI in the first place.<p>Overview of the competition series itself: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=LyYsCyMC-0w" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=LyYsCyMC-0w</a><p>Video of the 2018 Finals: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=iRNQfaf_Cr0" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=iRNQfaf_Cr0</a><p>Bloomberg video about the RoboMaster S1: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=aPzq1DoPnXs" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=aPzq1DoPnXs</a>

Making the offensive component a central design element is... interesting. They could have designed a robot for kids like what anki did but.. this is what they came up with.

Damn, a younger version of me would have loved this thing. The remote-controlled cars we had in the 90&#x27;s were downright primitive in comparison.

My kids went through Sphero, Mindstorms and a couple of other robots where you can program them in Scratch and similar. To me such a toy would have been a godsend. They got bored pretty quickly.<p>Another issue is that gimbal adds to video quality but also to cost.<p>Finally with the hype, I was expecting a nice ready to fly FPV drone.<p>So I&#x27;m a bit meh about this toy.

DJI is amazing. They sell their drone IMU+RF module separately to make your own drones, and their new 4K Osmo Pocket comes with me everywhere I go. Few companies are making such innovative hardware.

So they are showing how this robots shoot each other and then they show where you can point to a child to follow (or shoot?)...

I like it. Wish it came with an arm instead of a turret. We have a Parrot Mambo in our home. The turret was used for a few days and then removed. It added a lot of bulk and halved the flight time.

This website has a major flaw. When I click the buy button it says not available in your country. I was thinking about getting this for my nephew who lives in the USA while I live in Australia. I know I&#x27;m obviously a small percentage that is outside USA that could buy and get it delivered to a local address but it still seems crazy not to even allow that.<p>I know I could vpn it but I don&#x27;t think that should be necessary.

Seems A lot like Robocode, but with hardware and less destruction.<p>(robocode seems to still be going, though I haven&#x27;t looked at it in a while..)<p><a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;robowiki.net&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Robocode" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;robowiki.net&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Robocode</a><p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;robocode.sourceforge.io" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;robocode.sourceforge.io</a>

So, how about a DIY variant of this?<p>- Start with a DonkeyCar with Jetson Nano<p>- add mecanum wheels (why not three instead of four?)<p>- add a weapon or laser pointer or whatever<p>On the other hand, do we really want to push gamification of autonomous weapon systems?

DJI taking the time to write a page for the S1 in my language only to at the very end tell me &quot;Not available in your region&quot; is toying with my emotions and heartbreaking

Interesting how an educational robot project&#x2F;competition always needs to involve the careful exercising of ballistics against a target. Descartes clearly got it all wrong and should have instead formulated his proposition as &quot;I fire ma lazerz, therefore I am&quot;. By that definition, the singularity is clearly near.

Bloomberg Businessweek created an excellent video profile of how this kit fits in robotics education and STEAM programs: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=aPzq1DoPnXs" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=aPzq1DoPnXs</a>

Looks like a cooler version of the AWS DeepRacer mixed with an old LEGO MindStorm kit.

I know this is a yet-to-be released product and it says Python is supported, but does anyone know if it is possible to install 3rd party libraries and interact with the filesystem?<p>Interested in installing a webserver like flask on here.

This looks pretty damn cool and I&#x27;d like to try it. But weird that the western media hasn&#x27;t picked up this story in light of all their coverage on China stealing IP...

What does the &quot;gun&quot; shoot? It seems laser, but then how does the target in the movie (which seems to be paper) fall over?

why this?<p>&gt; To comply with local laws and regulations, the RoboMaster S1 will not be sold in Washington, D.C. or North Dakota.

My American girlfriend&#x27;s immediate response: seems militaristic and violent.<p>My daughter was turned off from robotics at a young age. She joined firstego league and there was a ton of domineering &quot;boy energy&quot; in her school. She enjoyed creating and personalizing the robots in unique ways, the boys wanted &quot;to win&quot;.<p>This is what happens when you have a bunch of dudes designing educational robot toys.

I predict someone will mount a real gun on this.

Wow so crowdsourcing the military industrial complex&#x27;s artificial intelligence KILLBOTS?<p>This almost looks like it&#x27;s satire, but it&#x27;s completely real and for sale, just $499!<p>Reminds me of this: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=TlO2gcs1YvM" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=TlO2gcs1YvM</a>

Wild speculation, but I could see Apple acquiring DJI.

imo giving way to kids impulses like fighting might be commercially the most viable thing - educationally it is not. It is always much easier to be destructive than constructive. However, we should try to teach our kids the latter. Achieving win-win does not usually come from impulse but from empathy.<p>Although it is hard, I try to avoid fighting games and media for my kids as much as I can and try to teach them competing in more creative ways...