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What is a desk robot, and how do you make one?

A desk robot is a small robot that stays on a table and uses a face, a camera and a speaker to interact with you, turning its head and nodding rather than driving away. The Desk bot is one you design in your browser: it is 96 x 88 x 170 mm, weighs 252.3 g with its parts (155.6 g printed in PETG), turns its head left and right and nods it up and down. Built and tested by 3D3D it costs from $315.14 CAD; the bought parts for building it yourself come to $137.94 CAD.

What is inside a desk robot

The Desk bot has the same head as the Mini v2 and a different body. In the head: a Waveshare 2" capacitive touch LCD (18-pin FPC option) ($29.99 CAD) for its face, and a Waveshare ESP32-S3-CAM-OV5640 board (camera and 2 W speaker in the box) ($37.99 CAD) for the camera, the speaker and the brain. In the body: two Feetech SCS0009 bus servos (a pack of 2 is $35.99), one to turn the head and one to nod it, and a Waveshare Bus Servo Adapter (A) ($16.99) to run them from the board. Everything else is printed: 11 pieces, 155.6 g.

Its face, voice and moves run in the test room today. The program that runs them on the real ESP32-S3 chip is not built yet. Parts and prices are on the Desk bot page.

Which desk robot

The Tower is the Desk's turning base and nodding neck on a wider, taller base: its foot is 14 mm wider each way and the neck stands 16 mm higher.

How to make one, in six steps

1. Open Pick your bot. It starts on the Mini v2. Choose the "Desk, turns and nods" body, or the wider Tower body.
2. Pick a head. Any of the 8 heads fits; the built price moves by −$9.95 to +$0.88.
3. Give it a face and colours. Pick a face (89 to start from), a voice and the colours of its shell, face plate and light seam.
4. Read the checks. Every check must pass before the Get it step opens: rules, the print gate on every piece, and no pieces overlapping.
5. Test it in the browser. The test room runs your design with its real weight and joints, so you see the neck turn and nod.
6. Get it. Ask 3D3D to build and test it, buy the printed kit, or download the free files and build it yourself.

You pay by Interac e-Transfer on an invoice the 3D3D team emails after it checks your design; there is no card checkout, and nothing is charged until you pay that invoice. Shipping is worked out from where it goes and added to the invoice.

How it compares

Pollen Robotics lists its Reachy Mini desk robot at $399 US and $499 US (seen in an AI-search answer on 2026-11-02; see their site for today's price). The Desk bot is a different thing: a design you can change, with printed pieces checked to fit the real parts, from $315.14 CAD built and tested.

Where to go next

• The Desk bot
• The Tower bot
• The ESP32-S3 camera board inside
• Questions people ask

All prices are in Canadian dollars before tax and shipping. Bought parts are priced from amazon.ca listings (seen 2026-11-04), plus 15% when 3D3D buys them. Printing, the build and test fee and finishing are 3D3D's own rates, listed on the prices page.