This is a project that has been going on for some time. I figured it was time to learn Blender since I longer have access to a 3D Studio Max license. What better way than by designing and printing all the parts of a functional little robot mascot!

This is the reference image I used. Basically tried to replicate the body shape and moving parts. The front face/mask was somehow really tricky to dial in to get the same feeling.

After designing the parts, I printed them on my Cetus 3D. This was lots of fun and I learned a lot about the limits of FFF printing.

I ran into problems with the hinges. Being the first 3d printed hinges I’ve ever created (and really just pushing through with blender), I made a lot of mistakes, so I ended having to use metal rods for some bits and more glue that I originally intended.

This stayed on a drawer for a while until I figured out how I was going wire all the internals. I used the following:

• Raspberry Pi Zero W
• TFT LCD
• Adafruit mono audio AMP,
• PWM expansion board
• 3 servos
• 3 RGB LEDs
• USB Microphone

I’ve got some code up and running already to create some rudimentary facial expressions, servo motor control and RGB colors. I’ve also been experimenting with a few things to get voice recognition working.