Though 3D printing is still largely a niche hobby, we’re moving ever closer toward a world where the relatively expensive printing components are beginning to produce practical results. Rather than printing something just for the sake of amusement, like a 3D-printed portrait of your face, Brave Robotics has managed to create a transforming robot that has a 3D-printed body.
Even without the 3D-printed parts, the robot is quite impressive. In humanoid form, the robot can walk around fairly quickly, and can also extend its arm and shoot little toy bullets. It efficientlytransforms into vehicular form in only a couple of seconds, and can drive around like a standard RC toy car. The autobot is equipped with a camera that streams its view, which can be displayed on a tablet.
This is actually a newer version of a Brave Robotics transformer autobot, but the older model didn’t have 3D-printed parts.
The robot, which will be shown off at Maker Faire Tokyo 2012 next week, is actually made to order, and can be purchased for a currently undisclosed price that will be revealed by the manufacturer upon inquiry. The robot comes in its own numbered case, seen in the above video, and is preprogrammed. The full kit also includes a wireless controller that looks suspiciously like a modded Sony controller, as well as four batteries and a charger. Motion-editing software also comes with the purchase, as well as a serial cable, though a USB cable is not included. Upon order, customers can choose the colors of the bot.
At this point in the production process lifecycle, the robot takes around one month to build, though due to the 3D-printed nature of the body, there’s no reason why the robot couldn’t enter mass production once the process is a more refined.
If you’re interested in the product head on over to their website (be thankful that you have access to Google Translate).
via Brave Robotics
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