ShapingBits launches a pair of multi-material, high-resolution 3D printers

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Recently launched on Kickstarter, the 3FXtrud Uno and 3FXtrud Duo are next-gen, multi-capable machines.

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While it seems like just about every week a new 3D printer debuts on Kickstarter, some more than others are geared toward the DIY crowd. With that in mind, Bogdan Diaconescu and Difei Zhang — who are the co-founders of Albuquerque-based ShapingBits — have unveiled a pair of multi-material 3D printers that enable Makers and budget-conscious startups to create functional objects in an easy-to-use, cost-effective manner.

The 3FXtrud 20 Uno is a single extruder printer built with features that make it Maker-friendly with expedited setup and reliable printing in a multitude of filaments. This device primarily caters to those seeking to devise objects in hard, flexible and soft thermoplastics, which can all be 3D-printed using its universal extruder system. Meanwhile, the 3FXtrud 25 Duo throws on an additional extruder to give users a true free-form fabrication printer with advanced capabilities that allow for a greater variety of engineering (and FDA approved) materials — from compressible to maximum strength, and from low to high melting temperatures.

“True free-form fabrication (3F) can be achieved when any shape can be printed,” Diaconescu explains. “3FXtrud Duo uses a multi-material dual extruder, thus can print a large number of thermoplastics along with any two combinations of such materials. With 3FXtrud Duo you can print any 3D geometry with overhangs, bridges, internal spaces with internal objects, all possible by using dissolvable support materials.”

Based on an Arduino Mega (ATmega2560) and RAMPS 1.4 board, the machines also pack an advanced multi-material, all-metal head that excels at printing a broad range of thermoplastics. At the moment, supported filaments include ABS, nylon, TPU, TPE, PC, PC-ABS blends, HIPS, PVA, PLA, PETT poly, metal/ceramics blends, wood, carbon fiber, and conductive materials. This unique extruder was designed to provide Makers with minimum maintenance and prolonged utilization, by reducing stripping, skipping and jamming, and employing a tool-free, constant-force feeding system.

What’s more, a notable feature of both 3FXtrud devices is its superior temperature control. Both printers are equipped with a high-temp heated bed that can sustain up to 130°C continuously along with an extremely flat and removable glass surface for improved adhesion and to prevent warping. And to offer even more control over a broader range of filaments, the Duo boasts a fully-enclosed build volume that eliminates air drafts and gives a stable air temperature profile by trapping the heat. This minimizes interlayer stress in the printed objects, and ultimately improves its overall quality and robustness.

“A particle and activated carbon air filter with air temperature homogenizer for odor free operation can be installed, which provides a uniform temperature profile for the enclosure,” Diaconescu adds. “For the mavericks wanting even more control and desire to work with experimental materials, a closed loop air temperature conditioner can be installed for an extended enclosure air temperature range.”

• Build volume: 20cm x 20cm x 20cm (Uno) / 25cm x 25cm x 25cm (Duo)
• Layer solution: 40 to 300µm (Uno) / 20 to 300µm (Duo)
• Printing speed: 20mm/sec to 150 mm/sec (Uno) / 20mm/sec to 200 mm/sec (Duo)
• Nozzle diameter: 0.35mm (replaceable nozzles include: 0.2mm, 0.4mm, 0.5mm)
• Filament size: 1.75mm
• Software: Software: Repetier, Printrun, Slic3r
• Connectivity: SD card, USB (Wi-Fi in development)

Interested? Head over to its official Kickstarter campaign, where the ShapingBits team is currently seeking $15,370. Shipment is expected to begin in June 2015.

This wearable device lets you control objects by simply looking at them

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Designed with astronauts in mind, the Eye of Horus is an open-source platform that lets wearers interact with any device by just looking at it. 

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In recent months, we’ve seen quite a few 3D printing advancements stem from the aerospace industry, most notably Made In Space’s efforts to bring additive manufacturing into orbit as well as Rocket Lab’s battery-powered rocket engine destined for blast off. Now, a new project — which was created as part the 2015 International Space Apps Challenge — has employed 3D printers to help NASA engineers and astronauts safely complete tasks at hand.

While in space, engineers and astronauts are often forced to abruptly stop an activity to operate computers or some other tools, which could result in a loss of time that could ultimately jeopardize a mission. In an effort to solve this conundrum, a team from the Spain-based Makeroni incubator has set out to create a game-changing wearable that would enable these researchers to inteact with objects by simply looking at them. And adding to the impressiveness of the project, it was built in just two days.

Eye of Horus is a 3D-printed, open-source platform that allows a user to control devices via sight. The gadget in focus is identified using light beacons (similar to LiFi technology), which emit various frequency pulses for each device (whether that’s a PC, camera, TV or microwave). A frontal camera detects this light, differentiates and wirelessly communicates with the objects as the wearer glances at them.

As you can imagine, not only would this provide tremendous assistance to those in zero-G, but could be applied in a number of real world settings — particularly assisting those with mobility problems, drivers on the road who otherwise would have to take their hand of the wheel to interact with a device and gamers looking for an eye-controlled mouse.

Aside from its printed circuit board and software components, the Eye of Horus was created entirely by using 3D printing. Inside a custom enclosure lie a serial bluetooth 4.0 BLE Module, a relay control module, an infrared LED and n an Arduino Pro Mini (ATmega328). Meanwhile, the software is divided in two blocks: a server program (VoCore) running in the Eye of Horus and client in a laptop computer.

So what does the future hold for this incredible device? Its creators have their sights set on continuing the development of their eye-tracking devices and perhaps even a Kickstarter launch in the coming months. In the meantime, you can read up on their entire project here.

You-SLS is an inexpensive, open-source SLS 3D printer

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One Maker has set out to build the cheapest SLS printer on the market. 

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In recent years, there have been plenty of FDM and SLA printers to emerge on crowdfunding sites, and rightfully so. Given their ease-of-use and affordability, these desktop machines have become the go-to choice for Makers looking to 3D print a project. Though, as great as they may be, users often encounter a number of limitations when it comes to creating overhangs greater than 45 degrees, altering a design on a whim and adding support material.

Meanwhile, selective laser sintering (or SLS) is in a league of its own when it comes to yielding high-quality, high-definition results. These machines avoid the extrusion process entirely, and instead, construct objects by selectively solidifying very fine powder materials of nylon, layer by layer, using a laser. Unfortunately, as incredible as these devices may be, the cheapest SLS printer on the market today is in the ballpark of $180,000.

That was until now. 18-year-old Maker Lukas Hoppe has set out to introduce an SLS 3D printer that packs all of the key elements of those industrial-grade machines without the astronomical price tag. What’s more, it will also be open-source and feature a heated build chamber.

Hoppe admits that he only got into 3D printing about a year ago, but immediately became an advocate of the Atmel driven RepRap movement yet was always tempted by more pricier 3D printers. This got him to thinking: What if there was a way that would combine the open-source principles of a RepRap with the professional quality of SLS devices? And so, the $2,000 You-SLS 3D Printer was born.

As expected, the machine is based on the highly-popular tandem of an Arduino Mega (ATmega2560) and a RAMPS 1.4 board, along with Marlin firmware. However, controlling a SLS machine is a bit more complex than commanding a conventional FDM printer, and so, Hoppe employed another Arduino to drive the recoater. The rest of the You-SLS consists of commonly available parts that make constructing as simple and inexpensive as possible.

What really sets this gadget apart from other SLS printers is its X-Y gantry system, as hardware and software for those systems is readily accessible.

“I decided that it would be best to stick with the Cartesian X-Y system, as the software is hassle free, it allows the use of a standard RAMPS board, which again is very common with open source printers, and the hardware is available all over the world from different suppliers at a low cost,” the Maker adds.

The DIY system will employ a three-way heating system: each of two pistons will be equipped with two 300W heating cartridges and the build chamber will be heated by two optical heaters with independent temperature feedback controls. The laser sintering system itself will revolve around a laser-diode with 2W of power at a wavelength of 445nm.

In order to cool the various lasers, stepper motors and electronic components, the Maker notes that his design moves the lasers outside the hot environment by creating two parts: a lower segment, which contains the two pistons and a recoater, and the upper segment that holds the XY-stage and the laser diode. This way, the hot and the cold parts of the machine are separated.

The You-SLS printer’s outer dimensions are 90cm x 50cm x 55cm, which will make it a welcomed addition to any Makerspace workbench. And with a print bed of about 20cm x 15cm x 10cm in size, this allows larger parts to be printed diagonally and for jet small parts to be created without using too much powder to fill the bed.

Sound like something you’d like? Hurry over to Hoppe’s official Indiegogo page, where the Maker has already surpassed his $1,100 goal.

Orbit1 is an electroplater that lets you to coat just about anything

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Orbit1 lets you turn your ideas into gold. Literally. 

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Electroplating is a process that uses electric current to reduce dissolved metal cations so that they form a coherent metal coating on an electrode. While a number of 3D printers capable of making objects out of metal have already emerged, there has yet to be a Maker-friendly device that could coat an object in metal. Similar machines on the market today are often too bulky, messy and difficult to use — especially for the DIYers out there. That was until now.

Developed by California-based startup Monolith Studio, the Orbit1 isn’t exactly a 3D printer: instead, the machine enables everyone from tinkerers and engineers to jewelers and scientists to easily and affordably turn plain ABS prints into glossy, ready-to-shine works. After first making its debut at last year’s World Maker Faire in New York, the electroplater has finally made its way onto Kickstarter.

Using Orbit1, a Maker has the ability to coat their work in metal — like copper, nickel, lead and gold — in just three simple steps. First, by cleaning and polishing the object, then by spraying it with conductive paint and finally by hitting the start button. From there, Orbit1 will metallize the design, making it super simple to transform any 3D-printed thing into a valuable metal piece of art, jewelry, toys, instruments or even conductive part for electronic gadgets. Meanwhile, an accompanying mobile app monitors the coating process and serves as a real-time reminder.

Aside from providing users with an efficient and straightforward way to refine their projects, jobs can be finished in less than two hours for just $2/gram. Though Orbit1 features a maximum plating size of 7.8” x 5.8”, advanced users even have the option of adjusting all of the device’s parameters manually via the mobile app’s “expert mode.” What’s more, its propietary conductive spray is applicable to just about any surface.

“Orbit1 is as beautiful as it is functional. Right on your tabletop, Orbit1 scans the object and configures automatically. Click start and let it work for you,” its creators write.

At the moment, only copper and nickel are available for the Orbit1; however, should the team achieve its pledge goal, they will also launch gold, silver and other metallic finishes. Intrigued? Head over to its official Kickstarter page, where Monolith Studio is currently seeking $200,000. Shipment is expected to begin in August 2016.

The Palette turns any 3D printer into a multi-color, multi-material machine

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One Canadian startup has developed a way to take 3D printing to the next level.

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Over the past couple of years, there has been an upsurge in the number of 3D printing startups and a slew of new machines. However, as great as many of them are, they all too often share the same limitation: they can only print in one color. That’s where one Montreal, Canada startup comes in. From home projects to complex prototypes, the Mosaic Manufacturing team is hoping to enable Makers to create objects that would otherwise have been way too expensive or inconceivable with conventional printers.

The Palette is a filament feeding system that connects to a single-extruder 3D printer and transforms it into a multi-color gadget, all through the use of a standalone box. This helps avoid the limitations of pricier, bulkier and harder-to-use machines, which require multiple filament nozzles.

What’s nice is that this shoebox-sized accessory, which recently debuted on Kickstarter, provides Makers with the ability to build an unprecedented range of things on the 3D printer that they already own — using up to four colors and a variety of materials. Beyond that, the system eradicates most of the commonly encountered problems associated with regular 3D printers, such as dripping and build size constraints.

“If you can use a 3D printer, you can build high quality color creations with The Palette. You can skip the upgrade cycle of buying an expensive printer, keep using your favorite slicer, and use whatever filament supplier you want,” the team notes.

Generally speaking, FDM 3D printers run off of plastic filament and the color of the material determines the color of the extruded object. Not anymore! Thanks to The Palette, users can take four filament inputs and combine them together into a single filament output. The device isn’t just limited to extending the possibilities of colors either; instead, given the wave of new filaments, the standalone system allows Makers to use many of today’s most exotic filaments — whether that’s carbon fiber, wood, stainless steel or a conductive material.

“Everything is done automatically, from the order of the filaments, to their exact length, to make sure every color shows up exactly where it should,” the team adds. “All you have to do is go through the simple setup sequence and print like you normally would!”

To appeal to the diverse landscape of today’s machines, The Palette is configured to function with just about any brand of FDM 3D printer that runs on G-Code/X3G and uses the typical 1.75 mm filament. Simply plug it in, and it’s ready to go. What’s more, it doesn’t require any modifications, wiring or hardware changes, and is cross-platform compatible.

Based on an ATmega2560 MCU, the device is driven by seven NEMA 17 stepper motors, is compatible with Windows, Mac and Linux, and features both an SD card interface and USB connection. The Mosaic Manufacturing crew also went the extra mile by employing open-source firmware and software. This not only makes it DIY-friendly, but lets The Palette fit nicely within the collaborative ecosystem that is fueling the 3D printing community.

The Palette’s software works with existing multi-extruder slicers on the market as well. A user starts by configuring their slicer to prepare a four extruder print and assigns each extruder to the appropriate .stl files. From there, they slice the parts and create four extruder .gcode. Using Mosaic’s accompanying app, this .gcode is then processed to make it ready for a single extruder printer.

“Printing isn’t a perfect science, so we created a feedback loop to ensure The Palette and your printer are always on the same page. Mosaic’s app inputs a series of checkpoints into the .gcode/.x3g file. The Palette reads these checkpoints, and if the buffer is shifting, the Palette makes adjustments to the upcoming lengths of filament to ensure every piece of filament goes back to being perfectly synced,” they explain.

The Palette truly represents a giant step forward for Makers, as we continue to inch closer to an era of ubiquitous consumer 3D printing. Sound like something you or your Makerspace would love to have? Head over to its official Kickstarter page, where the team has already well-exceeded its initial goal of $75,000. Shipment to early bird backers is slated for December 2015, while regular delivery is expected to begin in January 2016. (Not to be bias or anything, but the team admitted to following along with our blog regularly and “would have loved to to be covered,” so a little extra promotion is in store for these guys!)

Mattel and Autodesk will let kids design and 3D print their own toys

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Want a new toy? You may soon be able to 3D print it — without heading off to the nearest Toys”R”Us.

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Let’s face it, as a kid there were always those toys that you wished you could design yourself. For some, that may’ve been a Hot Wheels car. For others, a Barbie doll. In any case, today’s generation may finally get that opportunity. That’s because toy makers are leveraging the powers of the Maker Movement to give children the keys to the door of endless imagination. Mattel and Autodesk have announced a partnership that will enable kids to customize their own 3D-printed playthings through a dedicated online hub starting in the second half of this year.

The joint initiative will provide a new immersive experience by combining the physical toys of today with the digital adventures of tomorrow. An upcoming series of apps will empower consumers — both young and old — to imagine, design and build their own toys, while 3D printing will bring them to life.

“Autodesk is dedicated to providing powerful, yet easy-to-use 3D design and 3D printing apps to unlock the creativity in everyone,” explained Samir Hanna, VP and GM, Consumer and 3D Printing at Autodesk. “Partnering with an iconic brand like Mattel provides us with an opportunity to demonstrate how Spark, our open 3D printing platform, can help create amazing experiences that bridge the digital and physical worlds and push the boundaries of creative play.”

Tapping directly into the burgeoning DIY trend, this exclusive collaboration aspires to bring hands-on design experiences to support an interactive learning environment through fun apps so that kids (and grown-ups who are still kids at heart) can also learn while they play.

“We’re constantly inspired by the passion and creativity we see among kids around the world,” said Doug Wadleigh, SVP and GM Toy Box, Mattel. “Technology is changing daily and by harnessing Mattel’s expertise in play and Autodesk’s expertise with creative apps and 3D printing, we’re able to offer a new kind of 3D design experience, continuing the Mattel legacy of inspiring imagination and creativity.”

While there is no indication as to which toy lines Mattel is targeting to get a 3D printing makeover, this is certainly just the tip of the iceberg and the start of a revolutionary trend. Just the other day, Disney Research unveiled a fabric 3D printer that was capable of creating plush, embeddable toys.

Printrbot Play will be a $399 fully-assembled 3D printer for Makers

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Printbrot CEO Brook Drumm gives a sneak peek at the soon-to-be-launched Printrbot Play. 

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Just the other day, Printbrot’s CEO Brook Drumm unveiled their new 3D printer, the Printrbot Play. The latest device will be a fully-assembled, easy-to-use FDM 3D printer featuring a build envelope of 100mm x 100mm x 130mm, a full metal chassis and a MIC6 aluminum print bed.

Coming soon….. Printrbot Play. $399 assembled. 100x100x130mm. Metal construction. Mic6 Alu bed. #printrbot pic.twitter.com/QdJDemtf3X

— Printrbot (@printrbot) April 16, 2015

In recent years, Printrbot has become well-known throughout the Maker community for its affordable plywood 3D printer kits, while the company’s first all-metal printer — the aptly-named Metal Simple — was introduced back in February. This unit was made of an aluminum and steel frame, powder-coated in an attractive red color, and was slightly larger than its laser-cut wooden sibling, the Printrbot Simple.

Comparatively speaking, the soon-to-launch Play will be a bit smaller than the Metal Simple, whose build area was able to  support up to 150mm x 150mm x 150mm. This machine, which will most likely also be based on an Printrboard Rev F (AT90USB1286), will replace the Simple Makers kit, and serve as an introductory machine for the DIY crowd. Even better, the 3D printer will be priced just under $400.

As we await its big debut, the team has offered a quick video sneak peek of the Printrbot Play. See it below!

These Makers are using 3D printing and Arduino to ‘re-enable’ the disabled

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Two brothers with advanced muscular dystrophy are using the powers of the Maker Movement to ‘re-enable’ themselves and others. 

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Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) is a form of muscular dystrophy that is caused by a defective gene for dystrophin (a protein in the muscles). Dystrophin is responsible for connecting the cytoskeleton of each muscle fiber to the underlying basal lamina, through a protein complex containing many subunits. The absence of this protein permits excess calcium to penetrate the sarcolemma (the cell membrane). Typically, the disease will cause proximal muscle weakness of the legs and pelvis first, followed by the arms, neck, and other areas not long after.

Nick and Chris Fryer are two Australian twins affected by DMD, who have harnessed the powers of Maker Movement to combat the issues that they often deal with on a regular basis. The brothers were diagnosed at the age of eight, and doctors didn’t expect them to live past the age of 21. Now 37, they are the oldest people living with DMD in Australia — though they do require the use of ventilators controlled by movements of their mouths and fingertips 24/7.

In an effort to improve their daily productivity, the Fyers have devised a number of projects using 3D printing. These creations have ranged from robots and drones to wheelchair accessories and computer aids, among many other gadgets. One in particular is Nick’s Bonsai Bot prototype, which was built with the help of Peter McKenzie.

(Source: ABC News)

Designed from scratch, the robot employs several 3D-printed and laser cut parts, an Arduino Mega (ATmega2560), a motor driver shield and an XBee S1 module linked with another that is plugged into a PC. This enables the rover to be driven from the computer using a C# application that Nick wrote himself. Small 3D-printed finger devices fixed to the twins’ desk allow for proper control, while fixtures on their wheelchairs aid muscle support. The system uses the Arduino Command Messenger Library to talk to the Mega sending serial commands using the paired XBee units. Video is then transmitted via an IP — although its creators do have plans for a more advanced system in the future.

“It is very much a prototype but it does work well enough to chase the dogs around and scare small children. On the to-do list is to develop a single program that does it all without having a browser window open in the background. It would also be good to have a system that uses Wi-Fi as that is far more ubiquitous than XBees,” Nick adds. “If it is to be used as a telepresence robot, you really need to be able to send commands to it through the Internet, so I am also playing around with TCP/IP as a way to send information to the robot.”

Beyond that, the brothers — who formed the Melbourne Eastern Suburbs Hackers (MESH) group to utilize technology to enable those with disabilities — have also devised an innovative button box. Due to their condition, both Nick and Chris experience difficulties when pressing buttons on a keyboard. To eradicate the problem, this DIY device can assign any one of the four buttons to any keyboard key. It uses an Arduino Leonardo (ATmega32U4) to mimic the signals of a keyboard (or a mouse), which is made possible through a simple program running on the board.

(Source: ABC News)

“I have also made my own modifications to the program to get rid of some bugs. I also wrote a program that allows me to use the ‘scroll wheel’ on a mouse as a game, Stardrive, that I play requires players to frequently zoom in and out, but the makers never assigned a key for the zoom,” Chris writes.

Most recently, the twins sat down with ABC News to share their envision of how public Makerspaces like their own can improve the lives of those with living with disabilities.

“What we want to do is to enable people with disabilities to design and create things for themselves,” Nick explains. “In the past it was virtually impossible for someone like me to actually make something physical, but now with computers, computer-aided design and 3D printers it’s become relatively easy.”

Intrigued? You can browse through the Fryer brothers’ latest projects here, while read the entire ABC News write-up here.

Disney Research creates a 3D printer that can print in fabric

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A new form of 3D printing technology can make embeddedable, plush toys.

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3D printing has grown leaps and bounds over the last couple of years, not only in terms of the gadgets themselves, but the filaments they are capable of extruding as well. Still though, most consumer-grade 3D printers only construct objects comprised of rigid and hard materials (like plastics, ceramics or metal) fused together. That was until now. A group of researchers from Disney, Cornell University and Carnegie Mellon University have recently developed a new 3D printing technique that creates items out of layers of felt.

“Consumers increasingly prefer high quality and beautiful bespoke objects, as evidenced by the success of websites such as Etsy,” the team elaborates upon the inspiration of the project. “However, these websites typically require individual craftspeople to produce such objects by hand. New additive manufacturing technologies (more commonly known as 3D printing) provide an opportunity to manufacture highly custom objects on demand.”

The so-called Layered Fabric 3D Printer works along principles similar to those used in polymer deposition. A 3D model is broken down into slices, which are translated into the printer. This is where the two techniques diverge. Rather than being laid down by an extruder nozzle, this method uses a laser to cut the outline of each layer from a roll of heat-activated adhesive fabric that correspond to the sliced layers. The fabric is fed to the bottom face of the bed by rollers mounted to the sides, and held in place by a vacuum during cutting. This layer is then transferred onto the printer’s build platform, where it is activated by a warm disc on the machine’s print head. This process is then repeated until the object is fully “printed,” whereupon completion, the result is a block-like figure that is manually peeled, revealing a soft and flexible layered object.

The printer is also multi-material, and can automatically integrate two types of fabric into a single print. Meaning, conductive fabric can be embedded in a print to create a capacitive touch input or electric circuit paths. “For example, objects with printed ‘wiring’ can be constructed using conductive fabric. This ‘wiring’ is completely flexible since it is formed with, and entirely embedded inside of, fabric sheets,” the team adds. “We have used this capability in several proof-of-concept demonstration objects including a soft cell phone case which contains a printed fabric coil capable of harvesting power from the NFC hardware of an off-the-shelf cell phone.”

By using conductive fabric as one of their material feeds, the researchers were able to make custom-printed capacitive sensors as a part of a normal print, including a touch-enabled necklace pendent in the form of a soft starfish connected to an Arduino Lilypad (ATmega328) and a capacitive sensor configured as a slider linked to an off-the-shelf Teensy MCU.

Much like a number of other traditional printers available today, the Layered Fabric 3D Printer is powered by an Arduino Mega 2560 (ATmega2560) driving a RAMPS 1.4 control board with Repetier firmware. On the software side, the project employs Repetier-Host v0.95 with no modification and Slic3r v1.1.7. The build volume for the current prototype is 10” x 10” x 10”, though the team does note that larger-sized devices could be easily constructed using this same design.

To first test out its approach of crafting on-demand plush toys, the team constructed a 2.5-inch Stanford bunny in roughly two and a half hours. Interestingly enough, unlike conventional printers where printing and filling the model are the most laborious parts, with this machine, movement of the bonding platform and the bonding steps consume the most time.

“It consists of 32 layers of acrylic felt fabric resulting in a 64mm high final product. Despite the relatively thick 2mm felt used in the print, it preserved most of the details in the underlying 3D digital model like the nose and ears. Also notice the relatively com- plex overhanging shape in the ears of the bunny. Because of the cutting strategy we used, fabric from the bounding box area of the previous layer serves as support for overhangs, including very small and sharply overhung features such as these.”

When all is said and done, the researchers are looking to usher in a new way of layer-based 3D fabric printing that can form precise, yet soft and deformable 3D objects from rolls of off-the-shelf fabric. As TechCrunch notes, “It’s as much a laser cutter as it is a 3D printer.” Nevertheless, it’s still extremely cool — and AVR powered!

Want to learn more? You can read the entire paper from Disney Research, Cornell University and Carnegie Mellon here.

Creating an Arduino-based, 3D-printed robot

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Maker designs a DIY four-wheel robot for less than $50.

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Maker Miguel Angel Lopez had been on the lookout for a mini, inexpensive robotic vehicle that he could tinker with; unfortunately, his searches came up short. So in true DIY fashion, he decided to build his own with the help of 3D printing and Arduino.

Dubbed WatsonBot, the four-wheeler is comprised of several 3D-printed components including its undercarriage, front and rear bumpers, and central pillars between the wheels on each side. In order to power up his design, the Maker added an Arduino Uno (ATmega328), an Arduino Motor Drive Shield and a recycled RC car battery — all of which he had lying around his home.

Beyond that, Lopez obtained an infrared sensor proximity that enables Watson to “see” in front of him. For the next version, the Maker notes that at least two more sensors will be implemented to let the bot know what’s going on along its sides as well.

With a couple of nuts and screws, and finally a little programming of the Arduino, WatsonBot was good to go. Those wishing to create a DIY robot of their own can head over to his Thingiverse page here.