Brian David Johnson, a futurist at Intel has said his job is to brainstorm ideas for technology that will exist ten to fifteen years down the line. And, now, the time has come for one of his products to manifest itself in reality. At the Inside 3D Printing Conference in New York 2014, Johnson announced the launch of the 21st Century Robot: Jimmy.
Jimmy is an open source, 3D printed robot that Johnson has developed with the help of artist Sandy Winkelman, designer Wayne Losey and the students of Olin College. To produce Jimmy, Johnson spent the first eight years writing science fiction describing the sort of robot he wanted to make. In the process, he came across a number of criteria that Jimmy would have to have. First and foremost, Jimmy needed to be cute and non-threatening. These characteristics would ensure that people would want to interact with him.
Robots of the 20th Century, according to Johnson, aren’t truly social, but, instead, perform specific, menial tasks. Throughout the design process, he shopped the robot around to classrooms to find out what students would want Jimmy to do. With the answers, Johnson reasoned that the ability to socialize was truly what people were craving.
To make the robot of the future accessible and affordable, Johnson designed Jimmy as open source and 3D printable. At the moment, about 50% of Jimmy’s parts can be 3D printed, but Johnson says that, by the end of the year, he hopes that figure will shoot up – but will exclude the motors, circuit boards and wiring.
If you want to hear Johnson talking about Jimmy more, check out the next video clip:
