Robomate: Robot football, in kit form, for the price of a board game habit
Pugnax tabularis
IN VERIFICATION PREORDER
Robomate is a £99 two-wheeled self-balancing tabletop gaming robot from UK startup ROBOMATES, sold as a DIY kit or assembled at the same price. ESP32 brain, PCBs as structure, swappable 3D-printable bodies, any Bluetooth controller, and an open ecosystem with docs and a spare-parts store. Sold in batches that sell out.
What it is
Robomate is a £99 two-wheeled tabletop gaming robot from ROBOMATES, a small UK operation with an unusually principled bill of materials: the circuit boards are the chassis. Kit or assembled costs the same £99, which tells you what the makers think the assembly is worth — they’re right, it’s the good part. An ESP32 runs it, any Bluetooth controller drives it, and the bodies are 3D-printable from published files.
Observed behavior
A single Robomate self-balances, scoots, and falls over with dignity. The species only fully expresses itself in groups: robot football, tag, and push battles are the documented behaviors, unlocked through the maker’s web-based HQ. Maker-community coverage (Hackster ran the engineering story) treats it as a small triumph of design-for-repair — the spare-parts store sells every board, motor, and fastener separately, which in this category is nearly unheard of.
Field recordings & photographs
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Official og:image of the product page: flat-lay of the full kit contents — red 3 -
Clean studio render of an assembled blue Robomate (whole robot, white background -
My cleaning robot has very low self-esteem · Robomates (@rbmates) · ~24k as of Aug 2026
A Robomate squares up to a robot vacuum on a real living-room floor; the vacuum declines the duel. Best available look at the robot loose in a home.
Watch on YouTube -
Such a beautiful assembly process · Robomates (@rbmates) · ~370 as of Aug 2026
The kit goes from bag of parts to balancing robot; useful for readers wondering how much screwdriver time they are buying.
Watch on YouTube -
Here's another way to play with our robots: football—for advanced users only ⚽ · Robomates (@rbmates) · ~130 as of Aug 2026
Tabletop football as actually played: mostly collisions, occasionally a goal.
Watch on YouTube
Living with it
The registry notes two practical realities. First, batches: Robomates are made in runs that sell out, and the published ship dates on the store have at times lagged reality — verify the current batch before promising one to a birthday. Second, import: UK shipping means EU buyers pay VAT and duty on arrival; budget it. Beyond that, the owner proposition is the healthiest kind in this registry — a repairable, open, multiplayer machine whose failure mode is a spare part, not a server shutdown. The coding-club program (free robots for STEM clubs) says something about the makers worth knowing. Peace between siblings lasts until the second unit is charged; the registry considers this a feature.
Specifications
- Compute
- ESP32
- Connectivity
- Bluetooth
- Assembly required
- yes
- Subscription
- none
- API
- documented
- SDK languages
- web-based HQ tuning
- Cloud dependency
- none
- Firmware
- updatable
- License
- open docs + printable bodies
Field questions
Is the Robomate kit hard to build?
It is designed as an approachable build: the PCBs are the structure, and the same £99 price buys it assembled if you'd rather skip the screwdriver.