September's Hackster Impact Spotlights Takes on Robotics

Hackster’s latest Impact Spotlights turned its focus toward robotics, showcasing how engineers and makers are combining creativity, practical design, and innovation to build robots that range from expressive companions to full-fledged personal assistants. Each project carried its own unique flavor, with some playful and others more functional, but all pointed toward the same idea: robotics is breaking through the experimental arena into the tools we use at the office and at home.

TN-24 V2.0 (Cute desktop Companion Robot)

First guest speaker, Nickson Kiprotich, highlighted his TN-24 V2.0, which he describes as an Emotionally Intelligent Desktop Companion Robot. Evolving from its original cardboard prototype, the latest 2.0 version is equipped with Seeed Studio’s XIAO ESP32S3 Sense, a DFRobot 6 DOF sensor, micro servo motors, and an ElectroPeak OLED 64x128 Display Module for the robot’s expressive digital face. All of which is packed into a novel 3D printed enclosure. TN-24 V2.0 can react to moods, perform playful movements, and offer wellness reminders, games, and even music responsiveness in future updates.

Orguino

Second guest, Johan Halmen, walked us through his Orguino project that transforms a reed organ into a MIDI file player. Traditional reed organs use foot-operated bellows to create negative pressure and valves beneath the keys to trigger brass reeds. To automate that process, Halmen retrofitted the organ with a vacuum cleaner for airflow and 61 servo motors, one for each key.

The servos are driven by PCA9685 servo driver boards, which feature four daisy-chained units, providing up to 64 channels. The mounting process required careful alignment: servos for white keys were glued vertically, while servos for black keys were mounted horizontally. Each servo pulls its key via a short wound-thread linkage, stapled and glued to the keys for strength and precision.

For calibration, each servo must be aligned to three positions: rest (for manual play), pre-actuation, and fully open. Fine adjustments are made through Blynk, a mobile interface that communicates with an Arduino MKR 1010 Wi-Fi board over I2C, after compatibility issues with the AVR-IoT WG board. Blynk sliders adjust the PWM duty cycles sent to the servos via the PCA9685, effectively tuning the upper and lower limits of each key’s motion. The system will play MIDI files prepared in MuseScore, which were simplified into a list of note-on and note-off events, aligning with the organ’s limited control needs.

Lily∞Bot Crickit-Circuit Playground Express

Third guest, Dr. Carlotta Berry, and members of the Team Multidisciplinary Educational Robotics Lab (MERL), highlighted their Lily∞Bot Crickit-Circuit Playground Express robot that’s designed as an educational tool. The latest version of the robot has been upgraded with an Adafruit Crickit robotics board, a Circuit Playground Express, a 3.3V ultrasonic sonar sensor, and two DC motors to enable obstacle avoidance. A 3xAA battery pack or USB can power the robot, and it uses modular mounting hardware to secure the controller, motors, and sensors.

The base robot frame includes updates for caster wheel mounting, which raises the wheel slightly above the TT drive wheels for efficient navigation. The sonar is installed at the front of the chassis to detect obstacles, while the Crickit and Circuit Playground Express handle motor control and sensor feedback. The design is intended for elementary school students (grades 1–4) who use graphical programming with Microsoft MakeCode, but the platform can be equipped with more advanced controllers, such as Arduino Uno or Raspberry Pi Pico W.

Betsy: Personal Office Assistant

The fourth and final guest speaker, Dr. NorAzmi Alias, introduced his Betsy robot that acts as a personal office assistant. The robot was built on the SCUTTLE rover platform and is equipped with a Raspberry Pi and ultrasonic sensors, designed to carry tools, deliver documents, follow people, and engage in natural conversation in a lab or office setting.

Betsy was initially designed as a simple tool-carrying robot, but evolved into a more capable assistant by integrating VIAM’s robotics platform with a Large Language Model (LLM) to provide efficient decision-making and natural speech interaction.

The hardware features a Pi-powered rover equipped with cameras, microphones, speakers, and optional modules, such as a touchscreen or emergency stop switch. The software side leverages VIAM’s modular services for motors, sensors, person tracking, mapping, and speech. Betsy leverages computer vision, ultrasonic sensing, and RAG-style LLM prompts, enabling it to follow people, navigate predefined lab routes, and relay messages while responding naturally to spoken commands.

Conclusion

From a 3D-printed desk companion to a reed organ retrofitted with MIDI, from an educational bot for grade-schoolers to a lab assistant powered by AI, the projects featured in this Impact Spotlight highlight just how diverse and impactful robotics can be. These builders aren’t just showcasing clever builds; they’re pushing robotics into new areas where accessibility, emotion, and utility intersect.