Introduction: Individuality Bot

You can make this robot as functional as you want and as creative and interesting as you want. The main idea here is that this robot represents who you are as an individual. I'll tell you what I did to make my robot to get you started, and you are encouraged to deviate from my design to incorporate personal elements. Feel free to share pictures of your creations.

Steps 1 and 2 will tell you what you need for this project, and steps 3, 4, 5, and 6 will tell you what to do.

Have Fun!

Step 1: Building Materials

I made my robot from 100% recycled material. Everything on it used to be a piece of something else. I got the pieces by taking apart old appliances, toys, electronics, and things I got from garage sales.

You will need 2 types of parts: big parts and small parts.
I used big parts to build the body and limbs of my robot. The small parts came in handy to add details and make the face.

Step 2: Needed Tools


- hot glue gun
- super glue
- utility knife
- paper towels

You'll need the hot glue gun to connect the bigger pieces together, and the super glue to glue on the smaller pieces. I recommend using super glue on the smaller pieces because it looks much neater than hot glue. Hot glue is useful when you're connecting two pieces that don't fit perfectly together because it can fill gaps. The utility knife is handy for cutting off excess hot glue and for adjusting pieces to better fit your needs. The paper towels are needed simply to wipe off any extra glue to keep your work area clean.

Step 3: Make the Body

First, lay out the pieces you have to help you get ideas. Think about how you want your robot to be shaped. I decided to glue together several plates to make a roughly rectangular body. Then I glued on the bike reflector to give it a chest and some small things to look like actuators for the robot. Basically, I kept adding things until I thought it looked good.

Step 4: Make Arms and Legs

For the legs, I used two toilet paper tubes. The feet are made of hard-drive motors. I thought this was a good idea because they are heavy and help the robot stand upright. I wrapped a length of wire around one leg and a few rubber bands around the other to resemble socks.

This is a good example of how you can show your individuality through the robot. I have the weird idea that wearing different socks is lucky. Also I ride my bike a lot, hence the two toy bike wheels on the side of one leg. You can include personal elements of this nature too.

I made the arms out of parts from an alarm clock/stereo thing which i used because the pieces looked like arms. I added a shoulder made from large washers to one arm and a green laser thing made out of a pen cap and gear to the other arm.

I also made a weapon for my robot because every superhero robot needs a super mega laser blaster thing.

Step 5: Make the Head

The head of this robot demonstrates the more "robotic" side of this project. One of its eyes is a yellow LED, and the nose is a potentiometer which can be turned to adjust the brightness of the LED. The LED, potentiometer, and a 47ohm (just in case) resistor are connected in series. Red and black wires lead to a battery which I decided to have outside the head so that I can access it.

The rest of the face is made of various small parts, including the eyebrows which are glued to springs so they can bobble around.

Step 6: Final Touches

As a final touch, I added a ribbon cable with a serial connector to the robot as a tail and an antenna from a remote controlled toy.

This project is something cool to do if yo have a lot of junk lying around, and this might be fun to do with kids.

That's really it. Keep it as a decoration, or give it to a friend and tell them how much you love them.

Instructables and RoboGames Robot Contest

Second Prize in the
Instructables and RoboGames Robot Contest