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.
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.
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.
"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
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.