Engineer Ian Bernstein talks about his startup’s newest consumer robot released by Misty Robotics: Misty II. Based on what he learned developing his previous educational robot Sphero, Ian and his team created Misty II to be widely customizable, programmable, and full of potential functionality. The robot may be on the pricier side, and Ian says that it’s worth it. He also discusses why he thinks robotics can promote education and how he got interested in robotics when he was young. Related to this episode: • Misty II robot at Misty Robotics: https://www.mistyrobotics.com/ • Misty II offer for educators: https://www.mistyrobotics.com/educators-and-students/ • WALL-E: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0910970/ • Baymax from “Big Hero 6”: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2245084/ • Sphero: https://www.sphero.com/ • Sphero SPRK: https://www.sphero.com/sprk-plus • Lego Mindstorms: https://www.lego.com/en-us/mindstorms • Misty Robotics community: http://community.mistyrobotics.com • Blockly: https://developers.google.com/blockly/ • Scratch: https://scratch.mit.edu/ • JavaScript: https://www.javascript.com/ • South by Southwest (SXSW): https://www.sxsw.com/ • Apple IIe: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_II_series • Arduino: https://www.arduino.cc/ • SLAM algorithms for mapping: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simultaneous_localization_and_mapping • Logo: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logo_(programming_language) • BASIC: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BASIC