3D Printed iRobot Is Made Available To Everyone Through Open Source

Imagine a world where everything you buy on the Internet can be 3D printed instantly in your home – no more waiting for a parcel to arrive or delayed shipping. It’s all just instant and straightforward. Now, combine that with the fact that we’re all at some point going to have our own personal “iRobot” assistant. As 3D printing gets ever more advanced, maybe a reality where we’ll be able to order and have our iRobot 3D printed instantly at home is not too far away.

Believe it or not, there are actually people already working on this at this very moment, maybe not the advanced “walking around” iRobots, but the kind that could very well be upgraded over and over again. That way, over time, we would eventually be able to have our iRobot 3D printed without having to put it together ourselves. That is exactly what you will have to do now if you want to take advantage of Gael Langevin‘s open source project.

The project, called InMoov, seems to be aimed towards a faster development of android robots in our society. There are a lot of innovators, labs and individuals in the world working on their own upright, walking robot. However, when it comes to speed and progress, nothing has been as effective as open source communities. Through this project, you can download the blueprints for the latest parts of this quite impressive robot and constantly upgrade it. You might need a few more parts like Arduino boards, servos, a power supply and of course a few rolls of wire to connect it all. But that should be the fun part, right?

It is by all means a quite an impressive project and one that can totally reinvent the android robot industry. Having your own 3D printed iRobot is of course something that a lot of people would be interested in. However, the technical know-how required might at this very moment be a little bit too high in order for just anyone to start putting this thing together. It will be interesting to keep an eye on this project to see how it progresses. Comparing it to more funded projects is also something that I think will benefit the 3D printed communities out there. (Blueprints for the parts to be 3D printed can be downloaded from Thingiverse.)