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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?

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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

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