Creating robots is hard. They require lots of design, expensive parts, plenty of computer coding, and much more in order to be effective. But what if they didn’t?

What if anyone could build a robot right from the comfort of their own home? While you aren’t (yet) able to make something as advanced as the Optimus robot from Tesla, there is a new technology that makes it possible for you to print out ‘soft robots’ from the comfort of your home. And to make it even better, the whole setup to be able to do this will cost you less than $550.

The concept is already possible, and a new paper on it has been published in the journal Device. Researchers at the University of Edinburgh discuss this amazing new technology, saying:

“Soft robotics holds transformative potential for healthcare, manufacturing, and human-machine interactions, but progress in research and toward reaching commercial goals is limited by the lack of standardized, scalable fabrication methods. Our open-source flex printer platform addresses this gap, enabling rapid, reliable production of ultra-flexible soft robots with embedded fluidic logic […]  which […] can walk out of the machine that made it.”

The goal of rolling out a set of concepts to the public, and making it affordable for people to ‘play’ with is a great way to push innovation, not just with the relatively small robotics that they are currently creating, but much better ones as well. There are many times when putting technology into the hands of the masses is the best way to push it forward, rather than keeping it confined to a small group of experts.

But what can the new system do? Well, it is set up so anyone can design their own soft robot and print it off using the setup that they call the Flex Printer. Once it is done printing, your robot can actually walk off of the printer on its own, working as designed. Don’t believe us? Watch it happen in this brief video:

The robots are powered by air pressure, which is applied during the printing. Once the printing is done, the air tube detaches and the robot walks on its own. When the air pressure runs out, you can refill it and set it in motion again.

While the robot in this video is pretty basic, there is clearly a lot of potential for this type of thing. And the best thing of all is that it will allow endless improvement over time, thanks to its ease of use. Maks Gepner is a PhD student at the University of Edinburgh’s School of Engineering and Informatics, and also the lead author of the study. He said the following in a statement about the project:

“It used to take years to figure out how to print using these materials. Using our new platform, anyone can now easily print things which were previously thought to be impossible […] Without the long-standing manufacturing and design bottlenecks holding it back, we believe soft robotics is ready to make a major real-world impact.”

This is not entirely unlike the rapid innovation that came from traditional 3D printing. As the printers became affordable and usable by the average person, the number of amazing things that could be printed skyrocketed. The authors of the paper say something similar is happening with these soft robots:

“Ultimately, this platform lays the groundwork for widespread adoption and collaborative advancement in the field. By lowering technical and financial barriers, this work aims to democratize access to soft robotics.”

It will be exciting to see what types of amazing robots people come up with as more and more are able to print them in their own home.

If you enjoyed that story, check out what happened when a guy gave ChatGPT $100 to make as money as possible, and it turned out exactly how you would expect.