Racing across the trade fair floor with a smart printed circuit board on wheels

A printed circuit board on four wheels, controlled by your smartphone: that is the trade fair gadget of 2025. 'We want to show that electronics can also be fun,' says designer Casper van Doorne of Pink Fluffy Unicorns, the company behind the gadget.

How did the idea for the gadget come about?

We had wanted to develop a trade fair gadget for a while: a fun and creative project for the entire team. During a brainstorming session, my colleague Roy came up with the brilliant idea to design a radio-controlled car. The entire team of Pink Fluffy Unicorns, a technology company specializing in smart electronics, was immediately enthusiastic. That enthusiasm grew even greater when the trade fair team chose our idea as the winner.

What makes this gadget unique?

You only see the inside of the car. That is unique in itself, but it also contains all kinds of technical cleverness. For example, we have applied four points on the printed circuit board on which you can attach your self-designed bodywork. If you print it out in 3D at home and take it with you to the trade fair, you can screw it onto the PCBA. Another fun detail are the color sensors on the bottom of the car. They register a color on the floor and link it to an action, such as 'stop' or 'turn around'. The plan is to install a color race track on the trade fair floor where you can do this. feature can try it out immediately.

How does the gadget work technically?

It seems simple: a stripped-down racing car, but nothing could be further from the truth. Technically, the gadget is quite complex. The basis is a motorized printed circuit board with four toy wheels. You charge the car via a battery with a USB connection on the back. The microcontroller is located on the front and we are going to put a lot of software in there. The microcontroller is also a wifi hotspot with a virtual joystick. You connect it to your smartphone to control the car. So you don't have to install anything, which makes the gadget accessible and easy to use.

There are six colored LED lights on the front. They have no function, but they do provide a cheerful look. We thought that was important in the design: we wanted to make a gadget that people enjoy.

All parts of the gadget are open source and hackable. If you want, you can extend the functions via a MikroBus socket: a modular open standard for connecting modules. This allows you to quickly and easily add standard or self-made extensions to an embedded system, such as a camera, bluetooth or extra chip.

What challenges did you face?

The problems we encountered were mainly of a practical nature. For example: the gadget contains a number of toy parts and we could not get them within the EU. So we had to go to suppliers in China. That turned out to be less easy than expected. The Chinese communicate differently than we are used to. Specifying in particular was difficult. For example, in China it is normal to contact each part by telephone. Just emailing a list of specs does not work. Each part has to be personally coordinated, otherwise you will not get what you need. Fortunately, a colleague within the trade fair team had experience with doing business in China. He took on that part and since then the contact has been smooth.

What does the gadget bring to your company?

We get a lot of positive feedback from exhibitors and hopefully in September from visitors. That enthusiasm from third parties is passed on to the entire team. We feel as it were enthusiastic and get new inspiration for our other projects. Of course, the gadget also provides name recognition for the company. That is nice, but not the most important thing. If you stumble over the carts on the trade fair floor, the trade fair gadget will have really been a success.