EduBot’s custom hardware - the controller boards and mechanical designs - isn’t open source today. This page explains the current thinking on whether and when that might change, and why.
Why not yet
Releasing a hardware design early, before it has a stable, proven foundation, risks it splintering into incompatible variants before that foundation exists - different mounting patterns, different connector layouts, each reasonable on its own, but collectively confusing for anyone trying to build something compatible. The goal right now is to let EduBot’s design mature to a point worth building on, before inviting others to build on it freely.
What history suggests
A few well-known projects offer useful, if imperfect, precedent.
Arduino released its hardware designs openly from very early on, and it worked - clones proliferated, and rather than fragmenting the ecosystem, they helped grow it, because a stable physical interface and software toolchain held everything together underneath. What actually caused real damage in Arduino’s history wasn’t hardware openness at all - it was an early, informal handshake over who controlled the Arduino name itself, which later erupted into a public trademark dispute once real money was involved. The lesson taken from that: keeping the EduBot name clearly and formally owned matters more than exactly when the hardware itself opens up.
Raspberry Pi took a different approach - publishing schematics for transparency, while keeping actual board manufacturing controlled through licensed partners - and became one of the most widely used education-focused hardware platforms in the world, in part because that control prevented a fragmented landscape of incompatible boards.
Both point toward the same practical middle ground: openness of information and openness of who can produce or modify something official aren’t the same decision, and don’t have to move on the same timeline.
Current thinking, not a promise
EduBot’s hardware designs may eventually be open-sourced, once the design reaches a stable point worth building on. In the meantime, and quite possibly afterward too, the EduBot name and the definition of what counts as an official, compatible EduBot are likely to stay something I curate directly, separate from whatever does or doesn’t get opened up. Nothing here is a firm commitment on timing - this reflects current thinking, which may change as the project develops.