In November 2015, I started with my most time consuming project yet: A remote controlled R2D2 from the Star Wars Saga. So what was special about it? Time was limited: I only had 40 days until carnival.
In 2019, I applied some of my skills received at ETH to make R2D2 fully autonomous.
Result
Description
The most important equipment was my 3D printer „FlashForge Creator“ and a 300$ laser cutting machine from China. By using PTC Creo to construct the 3D files for the printer and the 2D files for the cutter, I created every single 3D printed part (from the smallest projector on R2s head to the whole light saber) by myself.
First tests with the skeleton and a motor set from digitalmeans.co.uk.
As a remote control, I 3D printed a self-constructed light saber and uploaded the files to Thingiverse. Communication between light saber and R2D2 happened on the 433MHz band. The transmitter and receiver I used (seen here) can be bought from China for under 1$.
As head for the robot, I used an Ikea lamp. Servo motors inside the head can open and close the top flaps.
To turn the head around I used a stepper motor.
The hull is a 1.5mm polystyrene plate, glued onto the skeleton.