Press Release: 3D Print Owners

Tired of 3D printing chess sets? The ‘home robot revolution’ is coming, according to, Maker Club.  

 

Coinciding with the news that 3D printer sales will double every year till 2018 [1], Maker Club has just launched the first batch of it’s 3D printed robots on crowdfunding site, Indiegogo.

 

Aimed squarely at the home and educational market, it’s already well on it’s way to hitting its funding target with 30 days to go. But, for this ambitious start up, it’s just the beginning. Maker Club foresee a future where everyday robots like, vacuum cleaners, educational toys and ‘home hacks’ are not bought in stores, but  printed out at home to fulfill specific individual needs.

 

Successes like the JIBO family robot, which recently raised $1.75m on Indiegogo, prove a market appetite – but as the ‘maker revolution’ rolls forward, more people will want to build and customise their own bots rather than receive expensive, pre-packaged models that predict customer needs rather than mould around them.

 

While hi-spec robots like ASIMO capture the public’s imagination, they’re out of reach for the average consumer, costing millions. 3D printing democratises the process, allowing lots of people to collaborate on bots over the internet at a fraction of the cost, taking it out of the hands of the big brands and bringing it back to the ‘garden sheds’.

 

Designs like, Inmoov [2], a full size humanoid robot and Jimmy [3], Intels own 3D printed offering unveiled earlier this year, are now available for beta testing and will lay the groundwork for the innovations to come. Thingiverse, which recently celebrated its 100,000 3D object available for print, already has hundreds of robot designs created and adapted by its large user base.

 

“Getting people to understand robots is really important, especially as they become more common,  the first step is to understand how they work.”, says founder and CEO of Maker Club, Simon Riley, “ At the moment, it kind of feels like the perfect storm for home robotics. Affordable electronic components and 3D printers, mean anyone can create things for tens of pounds rather than thousands. They just need to be led through the process”

 

Maker Club intends to lead people through the process with an online learning platform partnered with  hands-on projects. The robots are controlled through a smartphone app and an Arudino-based chip of their own design, the MakerConnect, which sends control messages over Bluetooth, this is open for anyone to use and implement in their own projects for free.

 

With the learning of code now compulsory in UK schools and the maker movement gathering pace across the US, it won’t be long until robot building is common place, with it’s cross-curricular nature is deemed the right fit for educating the next generation – be prepared for the bots, they’re coming!

 

Source: http://www.makerclub.org / For all press enquiries contact Declan Cassidy, declan@makerclub.org, +44 7967812616 / The Fusebox, Brighton, UK (GMT)

[1] http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/2887417 [2] www.inmoov.fr/ [3] http://www.21stcenturyrobot.com