Show HN: JBR-001 – An open-source 3D printable desktop robot

We built a desktop companion robot that is powered by Arduino UNO Q. Project is open source: source code, 3D printable files and assembly instructions are available at Arduino Project Hub.

Robot is equipped with camera, distance sensor, buzzer, moves head and arms with 3 servo motors and has an animated display. It can recognise objects and respond to it. We build it with idea this should be fun project people can 3D print and build at home themself.

29 comments

phil42about 11 hours ago

This reminds me of the Otto DIY (https://www.ottodiy.com/), which also used to be a free Arduino (nano) based, 3D-printable robot until it was bought by HP. Just like with the JBR-001 it seems that the main goal has shifted towards making it a commercial product, which is a shame. Especially the low price point made it so attractive for beginners and students alike.

Does anyone know of similar, really open source and free projects like this?

fy20about 7 hours ago

I bought the kit (~€140) because I wanted something building with my kid, rather than spending forever debugging electronic issues and figuring out which obscure parts to buy. Under the hood it's still an ESP, so you can hack it. I 3D printed the body, so my kid chose the colours.

However the software was a bit disappointing. It has weird issues that kind of ruined the fun of it. Sure you can write your own code, but I wanted something approachable for my kid.

Plus they wanted a walking robot... so I guess this will be next :D

salamachinas1 day ago

Thanks for sharing! Love that it's open source with the 3D files and instructions included. My son and I are going to build this together. Great project.

gvuksic1 day ago

Thats great to hear! Building it together with your son is exactly the kind of thing we hoped JBR-001 would inspire. Have fun and let us know how it goes!

krisoftabout 8 hours ago

I would never design a robot which looks like it can walk, but actually can’t walk. That feels fundamentally dishonest to me. If nothing else it will let down plenty of people when they realise that the cool robot has legs only for show.

gvuksicabout 8 hours ago

Fair point, the legs can give that impression, but JBR-001 is made as and announced as a desktop companion, legs are there for support and appearance, but it doesnt walk. This is the first version, design files are open source and we would love to see someone build a version that does walk.

mrheosuperabout 13 hours ago

I’m sad that it uses the Uno Q. I really dislike the uno Q, since it uses QC SoC, which means no cheap Chinese clone, which is not very accessible to everyone.

ectolophabout 11 hours ago

I'm not sure any of the other Arduino platforms would be able to do the computer vision parts this appears to.

fhnabout 5 hours ago

this is built by Arduino specifically to sell more Uno Q. You want them to start promoting clones? What product do you make and we'll promote clones of those too.

frrlppabout 4 hours ago

PC?

wpmabout 8 hours ago

The cheap Chinese clones don't have to pay for any of the software that Arduino develops so yeah it makes sense they can sell them for cheaper.

intrasightabout 13 hours ago

An Uno Q is like $60. So what % are you gonna save on the whole project by using a Chinese knockoff?

mrheosuperabout 11 hours ago

A lot. The official uno r3 is around $30 while the clone can be as cheap as $5.

Which does not sound much, but to someone living in less developed country, that matters a lot

essephabout 13 hours ago

Chinese clones of Arduinos are normally between 3x-6x cheaper, and if your project uses dozens or hundreds or thousands of them, especially in developing countries, that's a major price delta.

NikhilChowdaryGabout 13 hours ago

I have started to use my editor to build a robotic arm and we are using JEPA for perception and Ornith local model for reasoning as a hybrid approach for arm because there’s no single model that handles both.

29 comments

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