Watch James Bruton Recreate the B2EMO Droid From Andor

In the Star Wars universe, droids have just as much personality as the biological characters. From the very first film, the iconic R2-D2 proved that audiences could both relate to and empathize with droids. Since then, the franchise has featured many lovable robot characters. In the most recent trilogy, BB-8 was a fan favorite. But the new Star Wars TV shows are gaining traction of their own and obviously need some droids, too. The most recent show, Andor, just premiered last month and James Bruton reproduced the B2EMO droid to celebrate.

Andor focuses on Cassian Andor in the years leading up to the events in the film Rogue One. B2EMO, AKA “Bee-Two” or simply “Bee,” is a salvage assist unit owned by the Andor family. Unlike with many of the droids seen in recent Star Wars media that are CGI, the Andor production team — specifically Jake Lunt Davies, Neal Scanlan, and Josh Lee — actually built a functional B2EMO droid for practical effects. The B2EMO prop can drive around and move as needed for filming (and to entertain crowds at conventions). Bruton figured that if they could build a working B2EMO, then he could, too.

Bruton’s goal wasn’t to build a replica prop, but rather to reproduce the robot's mechanics in an affordable and practical way. As he mentions in the video, the pros probably went about it in a different way. But this build is much friendlier to hobbyist wallets. And this wasn’t a trivial exercise, because B2EMO is quite complex. It doesn’t just roll around like a typical rover; it can also lean and expand its wheelbase. Bruton had to make all of that work with cheap components and mostly 3D-printed mechanical parts.

An Arduino Mega 2560 board controls the various drive motors and servos. The four primary drive wheels are mecanum omnidirectional wheels, which allow the robot to move in any direction without turning. There are also several servo motors, so the robot can tilt, move up and down, and expand. Bruton pilots the robot with his universal robot remote and power comes from a large hobby LiPo battery pack.

The robot works well already, but it doesn’t look much like Bee-Two yet. In future videos, Bruton plans to dress up the design to make it look more like the real thing.