In the list of awesome things to do with your free time, “build a robot” has always been right up there with “make everyone love me” and “master time and space”. Now thanks to Sparky Jr, you can accomplish all three. Sparky Jr. is an open source robot that you can build in your home. It was designed by do-it-yourself guru Marquee Cornblatt. Besides looking cool, Sparky allows you to sit at a control computer and use a webcam to communicate via monitor and speakers on the bot, giving you a telepresence wherever the robot roams. Follow Cornblatt’s detailed instructions and you’ll soon have a machine that lets you be anywhere, anytime, and endear yourself to friends and strangers. Of course, accomplishing your awesome list comes with a price tag of $1300+ and many hours of hard work, but it might just be worth it. Check out the videos after the break to learn how to build a Sparky Jr. of your very own.

Of course, Sparky Jr isn’t the first telepresence robot we’ve seen. Anybots is an amazing ROV (remotely operated vehicle) and Rovio is a fairly cheap retail device that you can use anywhere via the internet. What makes Sparky Jr. different from its competitors is that it’s completely open source and customizable. Cornblatt’s website guides you to the hardware you need, and provides the software free of charge, but it’s up to you to do all the construction. Any improvements you may make (in hardware or software) can then be shared with Cornblatt and he’ll place them on the site. This allows Sparky Jr. to evolve over time. Community directed improvements are at the core of open source technologies, and may prove to be a defining paradigm in molecular biology (via OpenWetWare), robotics (remember Willow Garage), general knowledge (sites like Wikipedia), and computer programming (Linux, and others).
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