Gael Langevin (aka Thingiverse user hairygael) has been working on creating an open source robot - and he wants to share the plans with you.
Using 3D printed parts and various electronic components, Langevin built InMoov, a life-sized robot capable of recognising voice commands and carrying out various tasks. You can see how impressive the robot is in the video above. And if you've got a 3D printer at home, you can make your own version, a piece at a time, by downloading the files Langevin has uploaded to Thingiverse and printing them out at home.
It won't be cheap, since there are a lot of parts involved, and you'll need to be able to do some programming and tinkering with Arduinos and the like, so it's not like everyone's suddenly going to have a homemade robot butler at their disposal after the weekend. But it is a really exciting project, and it'll be fascinating to see what other Thingiverse users do with Langevin's files.
Want to have a go at building your own robot friend? Get started by downloading some robot parts from Thingiverse, here.