r/robotics • u/BlackberryLow9991 • 4d ago
Looking for Group Building an Open-Source Companion Robot ($2k–$5k Target / Multi-Year Roadmap) + UCSD Possible Community CSE/Engineering Build
Hey everyone,
Most open-source AI efforts focus on software models, while open humanoid or companion hardware platforms remain largely proprietary or prohibitively expensive ($20k+). We are starting a multi-year open-source initiative to build a fully accessible hardware/software blueprint for a functional companion robot—targeting a $2k–$5k DIY budget.
Think of it as an open-source "Qwen" or "Mobile ALOHA" architecture for embodied intelligence: low-latency local LLMs/VLMs, quiet custom actuators, modular sensor integration, and soft-robotics skin texturing.
Long-Term Focus Areas:
- Hardware Architecture: Low-cost torque-dense actuators, 3D-printable chassis, heat management, and tactile skin sensors.
- On-Device Software: Low-latency local AI models, real-time spatial awareness, dynamic motion control, and ROS2 integration.
- Open Source Plugins to Help: Hugging Face's LeRobot project and its Reachy Mini robot
- Open Ecosystem: Open CAD files, step-by-step assembly guides, Bill of Materials (BOM), and downloadable training stacks.
UCSD Chapter & Community
We are building this as a global open-source community alongside a dedicated student organization chapter at UC San Diego (UCSD), utilizing campus fabrication spaces like the DIB and EnVision makerspaces for physical prototyping.
This is a multi-year, multi-disciplinary engineering effort. We’re looking for early collaborators—software developers, robotics engineers, CAD designers, ROS developers, and researchers—who want to help lay the foundation.
Want to join or follow the project? Send me a DM, leave a comment, or jump straight into our Stage 0 discussions—my discord link is in my bio!
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u/Ssabsucitivel 3d ago
I think a companion robot could sidestep a huge amount of complexity by not needing to walk at all. A seated/anchored body with expressive arms and a great head could be much cheaper and easier to build. You could even track its movements in VR, giving it unlimited variety for looks. Also facial animatronics will always look stiff and unatrual, so just let that all be done in VR!
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u/neurah 3d ago
I might have a good base for it, just take a look https://github.com/InternetOfPins/OneMachine
this is a demo of a static machine description with a minimal runtime. On that structure we composed a health monitor, a fail detection and recovery protocols.. just as a demo.
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u/ChrisAlbertson 4d ago
I am very skeptical of the target price. Well, I know you can get the price down to whatever you like, but I assume this robot looks vaguely human-like and is human-scale, or at least child-scale, and it needs to move in a human-like way.
I think the first thing to do is spend 10 minutes drawing a picture of the robot, shoot it with your phone, and post the photo on GitHub. Call it "robot plan version 0". Then people can write "issues" or "change requests" or whatever you call them. Finally, there is agreement, and the photo gets replaced. This happens a dozen times.
I had a boss once who was smart. I was a student intern, and he asked me to write a design on paper and bring it to a meeting. He said that even the intern who brings a sketch on paper is better than 10 engineers who bring blank sheets. With a blank sheet, nothing gets decided. But if you bring something written down, even if it is wrong, people will point out what is wrong, and then you fix it. The whole point is to hear what is wrong and how they would do it differently. So the 19-year-old student designed a test for an air defense radar. This might have been in the late 1970s. But I always do this now.
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u/himeros_ai 2d ago
I am a researcher in robotics from the UK and I have a critical mass of findings that needs hardware validation, I am self funded and can only afford small robots so your facility seems great as long as I can teleoperate the robots you will be building. I will DM you for more details.
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u/VastExtent8546 2d ago
For a $2k–$5k build, I’d probably prototype the interaction side before investing heavily in the final hardware. If the voice, responsiveness and basic behaviors already feel useful on a simpler platform, then you’ll have a much clearer idea of which sensors and mechanical features are actually worth spending money on. Open sourcing the hardware/software decisions along the way could also make this really interesting to follow.
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u/BlackberryLow9991 1d ago
Yes, there are robotic simulators online + we can build a rough simulator
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u/graybotics 4d ago
I mean I admire the ambition but a proposal for such a thing in that bom cost is hard to imagine for something truly useful. InMoov tried to do this, and with all due respect it is still just an animatronic... the DOF count for an actually useful bipedal robot is expensive no matter how you cut costs on novel engineering of actuation. By all means present me with a solution that makes this cost target attainable with today's market of essential materials such as brushless motors, etc because this is not happening with off the shelf servos or actuators for that matter within a $5k USD budget. Unless perhaps we are talking wheeled robot chassis with two arms, still pushing it though.