Intel Demos Robot Powered by Its Galileo Board

If you’re a maker, Galileo could be your new best friend. Released earlier this month, Intel’s low-cost development board is designed to power everything from homemade automatons to in-home sensors. At a recent Intel press event, Intel demonstrated the small board’s potential by using it to power a custom robot named Data Monster.

Powered by Intel’s new Quark SoC X1000, the first shipping product based on Intel’s new Quark platform of low-power, embedded chips, the Galileo runs a Linux OS but can connect to a Mac, Windows or Linux host system for development. Unfortunately, the board does not do video-out so it won’t work as a standalone computer like the Raspberry Pi.

Galileo also supports the popular Arduino development environment which makes it easy for do-it-yourselfers to program physical objects like robots, without a ton of development expertise. A number of other boards support the Arduino standard, which has already been used to develop everything from MIDI controller to drones to on-board car diagnostic devices.

The Data Monster itself is a simple wooden robotic arm with a set of sensors that allow it to respond to movement, making it move more if you wave a hand in its vicinity. The device on display was also connected to the Internet and programmed to make certain “excited” movements when it detected a new post with the hashtag #Datamonster on Twitter.

Though Intel isn’t selling the Data Monster itself, Intel Scientist Lucas Ainsworth has made the plans available online. If you’re interesting in building your own robot or another type of smart object, you can preorder a Galileo board on Mouser.com.