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Comment by psychomugs | Hacker News Reader

Plugging my own robot: Blossom is an open-source social robot made from 3D-printed or lasercut parts and a crocheted / knit cover.

https://github.com/hrc2/blossom-public

It's basically a floating head that others have customized with more functionality (e.g. cameras, microphones, screens, control with a phone) for research applications in human-robot interaction (education, telepresence, an assistant for ADHD task-focusing and CBT). We ran ~90 minute bot-building workshops for middle schoolers; they all successfully completed their robots and seemed to enjoy the hands-on experience.

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Wow, really impressed with this! I'm sure my kids would absolutely love to build something like this, just as I would :)

Is there some kind of guide available? I've never built something like this before, but have some XP with Rpi and breadboarding. Oh, and I don't have a 3D printer.

Thanks!

There is a guide available in the repo's wiki: https://github.com/hrc2/blossom-public/wiki

Our contributors' forks and extensions may also be useful:

https://github.com/interaction-lab/blossom-public

https://github.com/interaction-lab/BlossomNav

Regarding sourcing the parts, there are online services available to order 3D-printed parts as you would a PCB. The *.stl files are available in the wiki. Though with how accessible 3D printers have become — the well-supported Ender 3 is available for under $100 at Micro Center — you may want to consider taking up printing as a family activity.

In your build guide you write:

"Assembly Instructions - how to build a Blossom. In our experience, this takes about 2-3 hours for first-timers once you have all the parts cut and printed."

This is just my opinion but I feel it would be clearer if you wrote something like:

For a first-timer who can crochet or knit it might take: 1. 1-2 hours to cut the wooden parts

2. 1 hour to print the 3D parts

3. 2-3 hours to assemble the 'skeleton' of the robot

4. 4 hours to knit the skin for your blossom.

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