It depends upon where your goals lie.
I bought a pidog. I’ve added multiple alternative control methods such as joystick and voice
My code for these is posted elsewhere on this forum
Ive also created a couple of fully autonomous programs. One uses a mix of ROS2 humble and the existing camera for monocular orbslam to 3d map and navigate its environment
My second methodology uses the existing camera and monocular depth vision via intels midas AI to create and navigate a safe occupancy map. This stretches to about 6m maps with 1cm 3d resolution after fusion with pidogs intrinsic and extrinsic camera matrices
..which pidog then self navigates via a modified version of the bug2 algorithm.
I learned a lot about robot algorithms from here…
From which I implemented several, just for experimental purposes
Alternatively. There are free online AI personality pidog models that you can use for smarter autonomy, but will need to purchase chatgpt type credits to use these. Here’s a couple of examples using one of the vox models
As another example, another member posted some of their code here..
I’m sure that there is probably similar 3rd party software out there for Sunfounders other robots, but I’ve never looked.
However. Pidog is not very manoeuvrable. And it does eat through battery life. Maybe in the order of about 20 minutes, depending upon what its doing.
If you want something faster, then wheeled is the way to go.
Alternatively, if pure electronics is your interest, rather than robotics, any of the kits will give you a good starting point.
I hope that the above examples can help you to shortlist your own goals to some extent.
It was a steep learning curve for me to put all the above together, but there’s lots of helpful people on this forum who can help you through. Have fun!