During the last weeks I made some good progress on the mechanical structures for the robot’s body. You can not debate the beauty of R2-D2’s appearance, so it should look somehow like him. However, an original sized R2-D2 would be to big and heavy for the motors that came with my two wheel drive chassis. I also really want some artistic freedom in the design, so I chose to build R2-D2’s little brother. My kids helped me with the naming, and we agreed on the name “R3-B9”. Only later I learned that the R3 series exists in the Star Wars canon (http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/R3-series_astromech_droid) and that my sketches are actually a little closer to the R4 series (http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/R4-series_agromech_droid).
I decided to build the basic structures from cardboard and wood. The body has an octagonal shape with 9″ diameter.
The two legs are made of plywood, with a wooden frame (the cover will later be made of cardboard). The third foot is made of wood.
Putting everything together, this already has some personality (the head is not yet fixed to the body).
In the next steps, I will make the covers for the legs and feet, add some conical shape to the bottom, and make openings in the body for the ultrasonic sensors, LEDs, and a speaker. Maybe I even add two small folding arms.
Astromech Droid R3-B9 