Microbric

Founded in 2004, Microbric is a South Australian robotics company with the goal of sharing electronics, programming, and robotics with as many people as possible, especially children.

Microbric develops easy-to-program robots that are perfect for the classroom. No soldering is required, so they are as simple to build as they are to program. Their products are also more affordable than most similar products, and Microbric provides a 30-day credit account to Australian schools.

One of Microbric’s educational robotics offerings for schools, the Edison, took the crowdfunding site Kickstarter by storm. Edison far exceeded its initial goal of $20,000, with near 1,200 backers pledging over $100,000 to further development of the Edison.

Media Outreach

Microbric has been involved in advertising campaigns with 'The Adelaide Advertiser', University of South Australia, and TAFE SA to promote their educational products. Brenton O'Brien, the primary inventor for Microbric, appeared on the ABC's New Inventors television show in 2004 and won the People's Choice Award of that program.

Robots Produced by Microbric

• Microbot: an electronic kit construction system using electronic modules and connector ‘brics’. The Microbot is fully customizable with add on packs available. It can be programmed in basic and icon based flow charts, and has onboard LED lights (x2), power switch, and piezo (buzzer).
• Viper: a versatile robot kit programmed in BASIC programming language. Comes with a range of modules to customize the robot, such as LED modules, bump sensor modules, motor modules, a switch module, a button module, a buzzer module and an infrared receiver module to control the robot from the supplied remote control.
• Ai2 and I-Bot: these two robot kits were produced in 2005 and 2006 as promotional collectables through the ‘The Adelaide Advertiser’ newspaper. They are no longer available. 
• Edison: an affordable, LEGO-compatible robot kit designed specifically to be used in the classroom.