Hello! Happy #MakerMonday to you. This week, we’re sharing one of our favourite builds from the new issue of Raspberry Pi Official Magazine. The empty shell of an iconic film character formed the basis of an excellent Raspberry Pi– and VEX-based robot build.

Younger years spent absorbed in various sci-fi films and TV shows such as Forbidden Planet, Silent Running, Star Wars, Star Trek, and Lost in Space led to embedded software engineer Daniel Ramirez’s abiding interest in robots and his first forays into electronics. When he chanced upon an R2-D2 shell in his local hypermarket, Daniel saw a chance to combine his technological know-how with his sci-fi dreams. At first, the R2-D2 toy sat in his room “looking expectantly at me like Pinocchio looked at Geppetto, wondering when it could start moving around on its own”. Feeling “a little bit guilty”, Dan began looking for suitable parts with which to animate R2-D2. In the end, he chose a Raspberry Pi and some VEX Robotics construction kit components to bring the “trash-can-sized” Star Wars robot back into use.

...read more at raspberrypi.com