Make: Technology on Your Time Volume 16

Photography by Cody Pickens

TELEPRESENT: Maker Marque Cornblatt lounges at home with Sparky 2, his autonomous telepresence robot, while his cat One ignores them both.

Sparky 2: No Sellout

My robotic alter ego steps out — open source.

By Marque Cornblatt

I spent much of my childhood dismantling toys and gadgets and cobbling them back together in interesting ways. One proud example combined a slot car, a one-function wireless remote, a 9-volt battery, and a few fabricated gears and bits to create (in my mind, in the early 80s) the world’s smallest remote control car.

The 2-inch vehicle was top-heavy and had too much torque, but it accelerated ...