Sphero, formerly Orbotix (USA) Sphero (original) / Sphero 2.0 (1)

Sphero, formerly Orbotix (USA) Sphero (original) / Sphero 2.0 (2)

Was $129.99 (Sphero 2.0)Original Sphero launched December 2011; Sphero 2.0 (August 2013) doubled the speed and brightened the LEDs. A clear-shell 'SPRK Edition' of 2.0 was sold to schools.

Discontinued · used/leftover onlyPython from a laptopRobotic ballBluetooth ClassicorbBasicDiscontinued

Weeks+Shipping: Used only. Discontinued; used units turn up on eBay. A replacement for Sphero 2.0 is Sphero BOLT.

Remote control: Sphero 2.0 is listed as supported by the Sphero Edu desktop app; the original 1.0 is not. The unofficial spherov2 Python library also lists Sphero 2.0/SPRK.

Wikipedia ↗Sphero legacy products ↗spherov2.py ↗

Overview

The product that started app-controlled robot toys, a sealed, inductively charged ball driven from a phone over Bluetooth, shown at CES 2011 by Orbotix (later renamed Sphero). It had an unusually open developer story for a toy, with mobile SDKs and the on-robot orbBasic language. Both 1.0 and 2.0 are discontinued. Used 2.0 and SPRK Edition units still work with Sphero Edu; 1.0 units do not.

Specifications

Category	Spherical & rolling · Consumer & education
Released	2011
Availability	Discontinued · used/leftover only
Programmability	Full SDK
Best for	Ages 8+ (maker rating)
Vision sensors	No vision sensors
Actuators	DC / gear motors
Audio	No audio
Compute type	Arduino / ESP32 / microcontroller
Remote control	Python from a laptop
Size	74 mm diameter, 168 g
Locomotion	Internal two-wheel drive cart rolling the sealed polycarbonate shell
Compute	75 MHz ARM Cortex-M4 (original)
Camera	None
Sensors	Accelerometer, gyroscope; two RGB LEDs
Runtime	About 1 h drive time per charge (inductive charging)
Speed	Up to 4.5 mph (about 2 m/s) for Sphero 2.0; the original was roughly half as fast
SDK	Official iOS/Android SDKs (Orbotix), orbBasic on-robot scripting, Macrolab; still supported by Sphero Edu (JavaScript/Python)