Beyond the cool factor of the robot itself, the article makes a great point about the need for something more advanced than Lego Mindstorms, but practical for a

Beyond the cool factor of the robot itself, the article makes a great point about the need for something more advanced than Lego Mindstorms, but practical for an enthusiastic hobbyist. The author uses an analog to the App store, but Linux is probably a better reference. Are there open source possibilities for robotics? How would you frame it? People could work on sub components? Do you have a RoboFair to show off what has been built? Have a more participatory kind of BattleBots event? In any case it is a cool opportunity to have intelligent roboticists have an outlet for their work that is more additive than the YouTube video that will be passed around tech blogs and ultimately forgotten.