Beneath the white paperboard petals of a robotic flower--which can open and close in response to changes in light, or catch a thrown ball detected by infrared sensors--lies a new standardized robotics platform called Qwerk. Developed at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), Qwerk is designed so that almost anyone can use it to build his or her own custom Internet-enabled robot. It's a platform that CMU computer scientist Illah Nourbakhsh hopes will launch an open-source robotics movement and "democratize robot design for people intimidated by current techniques and parts."

In contrast to current kits--most of which require a prefabricated set of parts--Qwerk is, according to the CMU robotics team, the first easy-to-use, low-cost robotics controller to house, in one place, power regulators, motor controllers, and hardware and rewritable software for a Wi-Fi Internet connection and simple programming. In the flower robot, the platform sits inside the blue wooden flowerpot. The CMU team has also developed some robot recipes for easy-to-build machines--like the paperboard flower--that can be assembled in a few hours with off-the-shelf parts. Together, the recipes and platform make up the Telepresence Robotic Kit (TeRK).