On a desk, a small segmented machine that has neither wheels nor legs learns to shift its weight and step forward, a modest echo of a film robot that audiences loved for its odd body and drier wit. LuwuDynamics has released RIG-TARS at $99 as a way for ordinary makers to hold a piece of that character in their own hands, trading the impossibility of a full-size build for inexpensive, modern electronics. Its open firmware and designs invite people to remake the creature as they see fit, so what it becomes next will depend on the hands that shape it.
RIG-TARS: A $99 Open-Source Desktop Robot Brings Interstellar's TARS to Makers' Desks
No wheels, no legs: three servo-driven columns carry the whole robot
Mark
So what exactly is RIG-TARS?
Mimi
A small 3D-printed desktop robot from LuwuDynamics, inspired by TARS in Interstellar. It runs on an ESP32-S3 and costs $99.
Mark
How does it move without wheels?
Mimi
It has three articulated columns driven by UART-controlled servos. Coordinating them lets it go forward, backward, and turn. A six-axis IMU tracks its orientation.
Mark
And the talking part?
Mimi
Microphone and speaker, voice wake-up, spoken commands, and conversation through a cloud-connected large language model. You can dial humor up or down.
Luke
Worth noting that the conversation runs in the cloud, so the robot's chat ability depends on that connection. The reporting doesn't say which model or service it uses.
Mark
Does the $99 cover everything?
Luke
The source gives the price but doesn't spell out what's included, whether it's a kit, parts, or something else. I wouldn't assume.
Mimi
What it does make clear is the openness: RIG-Omni firmware, mechanical designs, and documentation are all released as open source.
Mark
Why does MCP support matter?
Mimi
It lets the robot connect to external services, so builders can extend what it does beyond the base behaviors.
Luke
Right, but the source doesn't name any specific integrations, and it offers no performance testing of the walking or the voice. Those are open questions.
The Pulse
- A $99 desk robot with no wheels and no legs stakes a claim on the fan-favorite look of Interstellar's TARS.
- Three servo-driven columns must coordinate in silence to move forward, backward, and turn, while an inertial sensor keeps the posture steady.
- A 2.4-inch display, camera, microphone, and speaker give the machine a voice, with humor and sincerity settings tuned by the user.
- Released as open source with firmware, mechanical designs, and MCP tool support, RIG-TARS is poised to drift from its film model as makers rewrite its behaviors.
On a desk, a small segmented machine that has neither wheels nor legs learns to shift its weight and step forward, a modest echo of a film robot that audiences loved for its odd body and drier wit. LuwuDynamics has released RIG-TARS at $99 as a way for ordinary makers to hold a piece of that character in their own hands, trading the impossibility of a full-size build for inexpensive, modern electronics. Its open firmware and designs invite people to remake the creature as they see fit, so what it becomes next will depend on the hands that shape it.
On a desk, a small rectangular robot built from segmented, 3D-printed columns shifts its weight and steps forward. It has no wheels and no legs. That is the signature move of RIG-TARS, a miniature open source robot from LuwuDynamics, priced at $99 and inspired by TARS, the blocky, sarcastic machine from Interstellar.
The film's robot won fans for its unusual mechanical design and its dry personality. A full-size copy is no weekend project, so LuwuDynamics offers a desktop companion that keeps the movement and attitude while running on modern, affordable electronics. An ESP32-S3 microcontroller handles motion, connectivity, and interaction, and three articulated columns, driven by servos and guided by a six-axis motion sensor, let the robot advance, retreat, and turn.
The front carries a 2.4-inch color display that acts as a small command terminal, showing battery, orientation, tasks, and logs, along with humor and sincerity settings. Those settings shape a voice interface with wake-up, spoken commands, and conversation through a cloud-connected language model, with actions that pair speech to movement.
Perhaps the most telling choice is openness. The RIG-Omni firmware, mechanical designs, and documentation are all released, and MCP tool support lets the robot reach external services. What happens next belongs to the builders, whose custom behaviors and new connections may take this desk companion somewhere the film never went.
On a desk, a small rectangular robot built from segmented, 3D-printed columns shifts its weight and steps forward. It has no wheels and no legs. That is the party trick of RIG-TARS, a miniature open source robot from LuwuDynamics that priced at $99 and takes its cues from TARS, the blocky, sarcastic machine in Interstellar.
The film's robot became a fan favorite for two reasons: its unconventional mechanical design and its dry personality. Building a full-size version is not a weekend project. LuwuDynamics's answer is a desktop-scale companion that keeps some of the character's movement and attitude while using modern, inexpensive electronics.
The body is 3D-printed and the brain is an ESP32-S3 microcontroller, which handles movement, communications, and the interactive features. The robot also carries a display, a camera, a microphone, a speaker, and motion sensors. Wi-Fi and Bluetooth Low Energy come from the microcontroller itself.
The mechanics are the most distinctive part. Instead of wheels or conventional legs, RIG-TARS uses three articulated columns driven by UART-controlled servos. By coordinating them, the robot can move forward, move backward, and turn. A six-axis inertial measurement unit supplies orientation data, which lets the control system keep track of the robot's posture as it moves.
The front of the robot is a 2.4-inch color TFT display with a resolution of 320×240 pixels, which serves as a miniature command terminal. It can show battery voltage, orientation, tasks, and logs. It can also show personality settings, including humor and sincerity levels, another nod to the film.
Those settings matter because the robot talks. With its microphone and speaker, RIG-TARS supports voice wake-up, spoken commands, and natural language conversation through a cloud-connected large language model. Users can adjust the personality so responses come out more or less humorous, and programmable actions let the robot pair speech with physical movement.
The project is also meant to be opened up. LuwuDynamics has released its RIG-Omni firmware as open source, along with the mechanical designs and documentation needed to build the robot. Makers can print the body, assemble the electronics, and experiment with their own movements, behaviors, and interaction routines. The firmware supports Model Context Protocol (MCP) tools too, so the robot can connect to external services.
What to watch next is what builders do with that openness: custom behaviors, new routines, and MCP connections are where this desk companion could diverge from the film character it imitates.
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