We’ve always strived to make sophisticated—and importantly, relevant—robotics and AI technologies accessible to the masses. We do this partly through the innovative experiences our multidisciplinary team spends endless days and nights crafting. But we also believe it’s important to open up our technologies so developers, researchers, and educators like you can employ them in your own work.

Today, we’re thrilled to announce the public availability of the Vector SDK alpha. It gives you access to Vector’s multitude of hardware and software technologies including:

  • HD color camera stream
  • Infrared laser scanner
  • Face and emotion recognition
  • High-res color IPS screen
  • Capacitive touch sensor
  • Four drop sensors
  • Hundreds of unique animations
  • Six-axis inertial measurement unit (IMU)
  • Custom vision markers

The Vector SDK utilizes Python, a programming language used in everything from machine learning to introductory computer science courses. There are also thousands of third-party libraries Vector can tap into, allowing you to augment his capabilities as you see fit. We recommend visiting the SDK Showcase forum to see what others are doing with the SDK, and sharing your own projects.

The SDK comes with a 3D viewer that presents Vector’s understanding of the world.

On a final note, unlike the launch of the Cozmo SDK which launched in beta form, we released a pre-alpha version of the SDK to those of you who backed our Kickstarter campaign. This alpha release of the SDK would not have been possible without all of your insights and feedback, so an enormous thanks to you all.

The included remote control example program gives you manual control of Vector’s hardware and animations.

We have more coming for the SDK in the new year so be sure to check in for new announcements in the official Anki developer forums.

  • SDK Documentation — Access installation instructions, the API reference, and example programs.

  • Vector SDK FAQ — Get up to speed by reviewing frequently asked questions.

  • Getting Started — Must-read post with handy tips on installing and using the SDK.

  • Anki Developer YouTube — Subscribe and see how others are using our robotics and AI technologies.

Posted by Kaiser

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Top Comments

  1. This is very exciting news and the moment many of us have been waiting for! Thank you Anki!

  2. Great news! We’ll be getting students started in this right away!

  3. OMG, Thank-you, Thank-you, Thank-you.
    :hearts: to the Anki Engineers, Software Developers, And support staff.
    This beautiful little robot now has an almost endless supply of potential.

  4. Merry Christmas Vector owners!!
    This is the main reason I bought Vector, so I can practice programming in Python in a fun way.
    I am looking forward to digging into Vectors features etc.
    -AsciiRory

  5. Yeah now Vector can play Just Cause 4 with me. Thank you much for the alpha.

  6. can we change Vector default pre programed speech? or add to it

  7. Are you referring to the speech recognition and voice commands etc?

  8. Oh yes! It was hard to bring vector home in India but finally got him and now the SDK…
    WAITING FOR CODE LAB FOR VECTOR
    Thanks

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