🧠 Learn how AI works · 💻 Coding · 🤖 AI robots, toys and kits
Finch Robot 2.0
By BirdBrain Technologies (part of CreXo). Visit Finch Robot 2.0
Desk research from the maker's own pages. Not yet tried by us. Checked 2026-10-24.
Finch 2.0 is a rolling classroom robot that uses a BBC micro:bit as its brain. It has lights, a buzzer, distance, light and line sensors, wheel encoders and a marker holder for drawing. Students program it in FinchBlox (icon blocks for young kids), Snap!, MakeCode, Python or Java, so one robot can serve from kindergarten to AP Computer Science. BirdBrain was spun out of Carnegie Mellon research and offers free lessons.
Our take: A privacy-friendly, long-lasting choice for schools teaching coding across grades; home buyers may find it pricey for one child.
Checked in a browser
A browser check on 2026-10-25: what loads, the ads and trackers we saw, and what a child meets first. Not a hands-on test.
| Child safety: 3 out of 5 | No third-party ads shown, but a 10%-off sales pop-up for the maker's STEM kits covers the screen; this is a shop page. |
|---|---|
| Data: 2 out of 5 | Google Ads remarketing (ad.doubleclick.net, googleads) and HubSpot tracking, including its ads pixel, loaded before the cookie banner was answered, though no ad was shown; this is a product page meant for teachers and parents. |
| Ease: 2 out of 5 | A discount pop-up and a cookie banner cover almost the whole first screen; behind them is a product page for buying a robot. |
| Cost honesty: 3 out of 5 | A paid robot; a "Get 10% Off Your Order" pop-up appears on arrival. |
What we found
- The first visit contacted 27 third-party hosts on 16 sites and set 14 cookies, 7 of them third-party (doubleclick.net and six HubSpot domains).
- Google Ads remarketing and HubSpot's ads pixel (hsadspixel.net) fired while the cookie banner was still unanswered.
- A CreXo "Get 10% Off Your Order" pop-up and a cookie banner together covered the first phone screen.
- The page is a product and shop page for teachers (Grades K-College), not something a child uses directly.
From the test: This is a shop page for a classroom robot, aimed at adults, with a sales pop-up and ad-remarketing tags on the first visit.
| Ages it suits | grades K-12 |
|---|---|
| What its terms say about age | Not stated in terms; BirdBrain says all its software is designed to be safe for children under 13 and sends no personal information to the company. (terms) |
| Price | Paid. $180 with a micro:bit, $160 without (CreXo/BirdBrain store, Oct 2026) |
| Works on | A device, Web, Chromebook, Windows, Mac, iPhone and iPad, Android |
| Account | No account needed |
| Ads | None |
| In-app purchases | None |
| The AI in it | No built-in AI; BirdBrain lessons have students train image, audio, pose, position and gesture models and use them to control Finch. |
What's good
- One robot from kindergarten to AP CS
- Software designed for under-13s with no data sent to the company
- Hands-on machine learning lessons
Watch for
- Needs a micro:bit to run
- Research mostly by the makers' own team
- Company is now part of a larger group (CreXo)
Data and privacy
BirdBrain says personal information is never transmitted to the company and apps ask only for the permissions they need, such as Bluetooth (which needs location permission on Android); its BirdBlox app also uses the mic for recording sounds. Read the privacy policy.
Does it work?
BirdBrain lists peer-reviewed papers from its NSF-funded Carnegie Mellon work, mostly by the original developers and often about its Hummingbird kit; no large independent trial of Finch 2.0 found.
In the Big Index
Alternatives to Finch Robot 2.0
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Arduino Education
Arduino S.r.l. (owned by Qualcomm) · ages about 7-18+ (varies by kit)
A strong choice for schools and teens serious about electronics; younger kids or tight budgets may start with a micro:bit or Circuit Playground.
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Bee-Bot and Blue-Bot
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Botley the Coding Robot
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Casio Moflin
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An adult comfort gadget that families might share, but parents should know Casio does not intend the app for children and it teaches nothing.
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Code & Go Robot Mouse Activity Set
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CrunchLabs
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A strong pick for kids who love Mark Rober's videos and building things; families wanting deep coding should weigh Hack Pack's price against a plain Arduino kit.
Where these facts come from
- https://www.birdbraintechnologies.com/
- https://www.birdbraintechnologies.com/products/finch-robot-2-0/
- https://store.crexo.com/collections/finch-robot
- https://www.birdbraintechnologies.com/support-article/what-are-the-privacy-policies-for-birdbrain-software/
- https://www.birdbraintechnologies.com/support/general/privacy-policies/
- https://www.birdbraintechnologies.com/ai-robotics/inspire/
- https://www.birdbraintechnologies.com/about-us/research/
Prices, terms and features change. Nobody paid to be listed, nothing here is an affiliate link, and Peabody never rates itself. Where we and the maker disagree, the maker's own pages are the ones to trust.