Created by Camilo Parra Palacio in 2016, Otto DIY is a minimalist bipedal robot that chirps and dances its way into your heart. Though Otto started its as a bipedal robot, the internet community has remixed the design as a wheeled robot, a quadruped, a tank, a humanoid, and countless characters.
My kids saw Otto while we were browsing Printables together and immediately asked me to make it. This was our second robot with a "brain" that the kids can program and that can react to its environment using its ultrasonic eyes. The kids' challenge was to program Otto to win a dancing competition against me for 3 songs: Blue Danube waltz, Macarena, and Gangnam Style.
For our Otto we didn't have an Arduino mini, so I modified the top shell to fit an ESP32 with a hand-soldered board. The ESP32 also enabled us to control the robot using an iOS app via Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE).
Recommendation
Here's my experience building the robot with the kids:
| Build & Setup | |
|---|---|
| Build time | 2-4 hours |
| Tooling required | Wire cutters, strippers, soldering iron (optional) |
| Parts availability | Yes - Amazon |
| Instructions quality | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ |
| Community support | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ |
| Cost | $ |
| Entertainment Value | |
|---|---|
| Age rating | 6+ |
| Frustration Index | 😒 |
| Wow factor | 🤩🤩🤩🤩 |
| Cooperative Play | 🤗🤗🤗 |
| Replay value | 🤗🤗🤗 |
| Education Value | |
|---|---|
| Hackability | 🪛🪛🪛🪛🪛 |
| Reusability of components | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ |
Concepts learned: Programming, Distance Sensing, Servos, Biped linkages |
To get started with making your own Otto:
Download the print files at Printables
Visit the Otto DIY web site:
