This is a low-cost educational robot I’m developing — “EduBot” is a placeholder name, not the final product name. The current prototype is called “Ping” (named for its ping-pong-ball front support), the third iteration after two earlier prototypes, “Rotari” and “Stanley.” I may open-source the design.
Manufacturing Approach
Parts are laser-cut in-house today, using equipment already in my shop. As volume grows, sheet-metal fabrication will likely be brought in-house as well, rather than staying outsourced indefinitely. (See Vertical Integration: Owning the Whole Chain for the broader principle this follows.)
Collaboration / SME Pairing
Building EduBot well means pairing automation and robotics expertise with people who know things I don’t. A few distinct kinds of expertise are needed, and they’re genuinely different skill sets, not one “education” category: robotics/manufacturing (hardware design and feedback, design-for-manufacture); curriculum & pedagogy (the biggest current need, and it splits further by audience — middle-school engagement is a different skill set from university-level or ROS-based curriculum); delivery/instruction (people who’d actually teach or run classes, distinct from people who design what’s taught); and promotion/marketing. (See Pairing Automation Experts with SMEs for the general pattern this follows.)
EOT Connection
If the EOT forms, EduBot is the most likely first source of revenue for it — assembled units, kits, parts, or paid classes. Profit isn’t EduBot’s main objective; if it’s ever open-sourced, that’s a deliberate choice, not something the EOT connection would prevent. EduBot also may not stay a single product. I’m already seeing early signs it could expand into a small family of related educational kits and components, reusing the same in-house processes and infrastructure rather than starting over each time. Nothing here is a promise — it’s a direction I can see forming, not a committed roadmap.