A robot pet is the dream of many a child, thanks to creatures such as K9, Doctor Who’s trusted companion, and the Tamagotchi, bleeping nightmare of parents worldwide. But both of these pale in comparison (sorry, K9) to Petoi, the walking, meowing, live-streaming cat from maker Rongzhong Li.

Petoi

Not only have cats conquered the internet, they also have a paw firmly in the door of many makerspaces and spare rooms — rooms such as the one belonging to Petoi’s owner/maker, Rongzhong Li, who has been working on this feline creation since he bought his first Raspberry Pi.

Petoi in its current state – apple for scale in lieu of banana

Petoi is just like any other housecat: it walks, it plays, its ribcage doubles as a digital xylophone — but what makes Petoi so special is Li’s use of the project as a platform for study.

I bought my first Raspberry Pi in June 2016 to learn coding hardware. This robot Petoi served as a playground for learning all the components in a regular Raspberry Pi beginner kit. I started with craft sticks, then switched to 3D-printed frames for optimized performance and morphology.

Various iterations of Petoi have housed various bits of tech, 3D-printed parts, and software, so while it’s impossible to list the exact ingredients you’d need to create your own version of Petoi, a few components remain at its core.

An early version of Petoi, housed inside a plastic toy helicopter frame

A Raspberry Pi lives within Petoi and acts as its brain, relaying commands to an Arduino that controls movement. Li explains:

The Pi takes no responsibility for controlling detailed limb movements. It focuses on more serious questions, such as “Who am I? Where do I come from? Where am I going?” It generates mind and sends string commands to the Arduino slave.

Li is currently working on two functional prototypes: a mini version for STEM education, and a larger version for use within the field of AI research.

You can read more about the project, including details on the various interactions of Petoi, on the hackster.io project page.

Not quite ready to commit to a fully grown robot pet for your home? Why not code your own pixel pet with our free learning resource? And while you’re looking through our projects, check out our other pet-themed tutorials such as the Hamster party cam, the Infrared bird box, and the Cat meme generator.