Brett Pipitone, the founder of mimicEducationalRobots, has always loved to tinker — so much so that he found himself making robots for fun in his spare time.
The hobby became more serious when Pipitone, a professional engineer by trade, brought his creations to maker faires. It wasn't long before he realized a need for educational robots — or the tools to help others like himself begin to learn how to build them.
Enter Mimic, the 2014-born entity that “offers a range of products designed to be simple enough for kindergarten but capable enough for experts,” Pipitone said. “Our robots teach A.I. and machine learning programming with a focus on human interaction."
There's the mimicArm, the company's first product, which Pipitone described as "an adorable desktop sized robot arm that can be controlled manually through intuitive movement of the arm controller." It includes bright colors and googly eyes that he added make the kit approachable, "while the manual control method gives students a frustration-free experience at the outset.”
“All of our robots are governed by an underlying philosophy: move complicated hardware interaction to the background so students can focus on learning the basics."
Mimic has a variety of offerings that range in difficulty for users of different skillsets. The easiest (the mimicArm Novice kit) boasts programming software called mimicBlock, which utilizes drag-and-drop components; users can eventually graduate to C Programming with more sophisticated kits (like the "intermediate" and "advanced").
These different offerings allow creators do different things with the robots they build.
“Students start with simple programs, such as making the robot wave, and over time graduate to complex interactive programs, such as detecting a person, following their hand and reach[ing] for and grabbing a block,” Pipitone said.
This range of curricula is what helps Mimic stand apart. Oftentimes, other educational robotic tools are either so simple they are quickly outgrown or they’re so complex it requires a level of electrical knowledge that surpasses its target market. Mimic wants to bridge this gap by focusing on fundamentals.
“All of our robots are governed by an underlying philosophy: move complicated hardware interaction to the background so students can focus on learning the basics,” Pipitone explained.
The Cincinnati-based company has found success with its work, especially in 2017 with the debut of its mimicArm version 2. Since then, growth for the company has included bringing in a new partner to oversee software development.
Pipitone added that while he enjoys the aspect of building and tinkering the work with Mimic brings, the best part is where he gets to do it: next to his wife, who runs The Oakley Soap Company.
“Our workshops are right next to each other in our basement, and it's a blast working side by side like that,” he said.
Editor's Note: mimicEducationalRobots was named one of Cincy Inno's "Makers to Watch."
