Poki Dashboard Robot
Poki is a companion robot from Polish team Six-Speed that sits in a car and reacts to how the driver drives. It needed a prototype strong enough to launch a Kickstarter campaign, then a design ready for mass production. VDR Labs designed it, oversaw manufacturing and took it through CE certification, and the campaign raised 223% of its goal.
The brief
Six-Speed, a company based in Rzeszów, Poland, created Poki as a companion rather than a utility: "a cute little robot that reacts to the way you drive and keeps you company wherever you go." It rides in the car and shows an animated face that responds to acceleration, braking and turning.
The campaign needed a working prototype good enough to show backers. The product behind it needed a design that could be built in volume and certified for sale. Six-Speed created Poki, ran the Kickstarter campaign and sells the product through its own online store. VDR Labs designed the electronics and firmware, oversaw manufacturing and took the design through CE certification.
What we built
Electronics
Poki runs on an Espressif ESP32 series microcontroller, chosen at Six-Speed's request to leave room for Bluetooth features in later versions. An OLED display shows the animated face, an accelerometer reads the car's movement, and a touch sensor lets the driver interact with it directly. The device is powered over USB-C and has no battery.
Firmware
The firmware plays a library of preset animations and selects which one to show from the accelerometer, so Poki reacts to acceleration, braking and turning as they happen. The touch sensor adds simple interaction.
Testing and production
VDR Labs designed Poki, from the prototype that launched the campaign to a design finalized for mass production, then oversaw its manufacturing and took it through CE certification. 3,000 units were produced. Six-Speed's own campaign page describes the validation phase in their words.
Result
The Poki campaign ran on Kickstarter from March 27 to April 26, 2024, and raised €64,532 against a €20,000 goal: 223% funded, with 845 backers.
“We tested Poki for the last 6 months to make sure everything works as we planned! Also big thanks to the talented team VDRLabs, all of this is possible thanks to them, checked everything and made sure it's not going to have any problems!”
Press coverage
Poki was covered by technology press during and after the campaign.