BB-8 Droid, 3D Printed & Remote Controlled

My own version BB-8, the new droid from Star Wars: The Force Awakens‎.

Check-out the video for a demo and overview of the assembly process.

It's powered by an Arduino board and remote controlled via RF. This droid self-balance on two wheels, play sounds, and has several programmable LEDs.

Advantages of this version:

Half-size, meaning shorter printing time : 50 hours versus 300+ hours for a full-size version.
3D details on the shell meaning less painting required.
Can easily move around on wheels, keeping its head on top.
Robotic platform is the instabot v3 available from Sainsmart.

This BB-8 droid has been featured on IGN, LiveScience, 3DPrint.com

Step 1: 3D Model

This BB-8 was entirely designed in SketchUp. The head is printable in one piece of 11cm in diameter, and the body is divided in 8 pieces of 10x10x10cm. Here are the STLs:

bb8_head: Entire head, the diameter is ~11cm (4.5inch)
bb8_body1: Body bottom-front-right
bb8_body2: Body bottom-front-left
bb8_body3: Body bottom-back-left
bb8_body4: Body bottom-back-right
bb8_body5: Body Top-front-right
bb8_body6: Body Top-front-left
bb8_body7: Body Top-back-left
bb8_body8: Body Top-back-right
bb8_neck: Neck platform for the head
bb8_servo_gear: Gear to place on a micro-servo
bb8_spine: Rod holding the head on the body
bb8_spine_gear: Gear to place on the spine which connect with the head servo
bb8_projector: Small cone to place in head.

The SketchUp plugin Solid Inspector² was really useful to find common 3D errors in your model that would make the slicing process difficult for printing.

Once the mesh is clear of bugs, I used the STL file Exporter plugin to export STL files to the slicing software.

Step 2: 3D Printing the Body

The settings I used for this project are typical for high resolution FDM printing:

Layer Height: 0.15mm
First Layer Height: 0.25
Number of Shells: 3
Infill: 35%
Build Speed: 80mm/s

Printing the whole body and head takes about 200 meters (656 feet) and 50 hours on a regular PLA 3D printer.

Step 3: 3D Printing the Head

bb8_head.STL single piece, no support required.

After printing, I use a Micro Rotary Tool to remove all the imperfections due to overhangs or droopings. This is great to burr through unwanted specks and strings of plastic on the model. It is cordless and has various rotation speeds. You can buy a separate set of Diamond Points of all shapes and length for precision work when polishing your model.