Making books with robots at Harvard Bookstore

Craft & Design Robotics
Making books with robots at Harvard Bookstore
book_bot.jpg

Popping into Harvard Bookstore proves to be a delightful treat. Being greeted by the old bookstore smell as you enter the door is intoxicating enough, but imagine my surprise finding one of the owners in the back making books on their new Espresso Book Machine 2.0 from On Demand Books, LLC.

book_bot_2.jpg

Harvard Bookstore Co-owner Linda Seamonson was gracious enough to walk through the automated process, which starts with either a press-ready PDF (if you’re self-publishing) or by selecting from literally millions of public domain titles available through the ODB catalog, including books found on the Google Books website.

book_bot_3.jpg

Dubbed “Paige M. Gutenborg“, the Harvard Bookstore’s EBM 2.0 is capable of producing a library-quality perfect bound paperback book in four minutes. Below is a video of the process from the On Demand Books website:

More:

Discuss this article with the rest of the community on our Discord server!
Tagged

I make cool stuff and write about other people making cool stuff on makezine.com. If you have something you think I should see, send me a tip.

View more articles by Adam Flaherty

ADVERTISEMENT

Maker Faire Bay Area 2023 - Mare Island, CA

Escape to an island of imagination + innovation as Maker Faire Bay Area returns for its 15th iteration!

Buy Tickets today! SAVE 15% and lock-in your preferred date(s).

FEEDBACK