I believe everyone here has at least some version of R2-D2. We have several ready-made ones that are fantastic, and you can search the staff of R2-D2 builders and try to build yours, or try some design to call yours.
In this issue of “Do It Yourself”, I will bring a very difficult project, not only in challenge, but also in cost. Creator Les Pounder was able to create a project for a cheap R2-D2 using a Pi Zero board.
If you add more complexity, the cost increases as well. This little bot combines an Explorer pHat board with some basic robotics components to bring Artoo to life. The full tutorial takes you through the build along with some basic coding using the Explorer pHat library to get you moving.
I know some people are going to say that it’s not a project that looks really beautiful, but think about the possibilities it brings you. With the easy sensor integration the pHat breakout board provides along with the processing power of the Pi Zero, this little R2-D2 has the potential to get very smart indeed!
This is a great project to get you started with robotics in general.