Line-us is by far the cutest drawing robot we’ve ever seen.

Currently raising funds on Kickstarter, this little bot is essentially a USB-powered arm that connects to an app on your tablet or smartphone and copies anything you draw in real time. (The software also works on Macs and PCs.) You can use it to just play around by mimicking your doodles, or connect it to the internet via Wi-Fi and send and receive messages from anywhere in the world. If someone has the app, they can send a drawing straight to your Line-us over the internet. Okay, so it’s hardly a practical way to get in touch with someone, but who cares: it’s got personality.



The creators of Line-us say they want to create a community of users who collect each other’s drawings via the app, and customize the bot itself. Line-us has its own interface for connecting with Scratch, Arduino, Raspberry Pi, and Python, and can be adapted in a number of ways. You could give it a set of watercolors to paint with, or have a pair of devices drawing in tandem. It seems ripe for all sorts of DIY fun.

The project has already been fully funded, but there are still early-bird units available costing £69 ($86) instead of the usual £99 ($124). If all goes to plan, Line-us will be shipping worldwide this October.