WRLD

Inspiration

I learned about Disney Imagineering’s BDX droid in August of 2024 and loved the look of their droids movement and was very interested in the RL control.

When I started my design, I wasn’t thinking or directly trying to remake what they had, but it obviously subconsciously directing my design. I mainly focused on a design resembling my friend’s lego BD-1 while trying to make it creatively my own.

I’ve been a Star Wars fan from as long as I can remember so this type of creation always lingers in the back of my mind. Since my thesis involves RL, it seems like the right time to start a project like this.

Project

An affordable (forced lol) bipedal droid for testing reinforcement learning-based control and computer vision models. This project specifically will push my full stack design abilities for a mechatronic system, especially one running AI on a microprocessor.

As of 09/27/2025, I have completed most of the mechanical design and am now focusing on a PDB/switch module for power distribution and easy handling of buttons, buzzers, and LEDs.

Mechanical Design

• 9 DC Servos (Feetech STS-3215-C044) –> 2 for hip, one for knee per leg; 2 for neck; 1 for torso translation

• Head featuring an LED button eye and a RasPi Cam 2 eye along with a snap-in “hat” for different functions. Carrying hat shown.

• Carbon Rods for legs which increase stiffness while decreasing weight

• Engraved name