There’s no party like a robot party! And this year at Maker Faire Bay Area that party will take place on the Foundry floor with (almost) every kind of robot you can imagine…and probably a few you haven’t. Under the soaring steel beams, acres of glass, and a REALLY BIG crane that used to lift up REALLY BIG submarines. Nothing will compare to the action when Maker Faire returns to Mare Island September 25-27th, but here’s taster to get you excited.
Droids and More Droids
Bay Area Droid Builders are an eclectic group of makers who discuss and build their favorite Star Wars droids. Come check out all your favorite friends from the planets far, far away brought to life by local makers.
OpenSAINT: A modern robot replica
OpenSAINT is a modern replica of the robots from the film ‘Short Circuit’. It represents over 20 years of collective work from the team Input-Inc. Visit our booth to learn more about the project, and maybe you’ll see our robot around the faire. The team behind this amazing project will also be giving a talk on the Make: Le Tigre stage at 12:30 PM on Sunday, September 27th. Step into the world of OpenSAINT, a community-driven engineering project dedicated to transforming a beloved science-fiction icon into a fully realized modern robotic replica. Combining design, fabrication, electronics, and collaboration, the Input-Inc. team is pushing the boundaries of what passionate builders can achieve together
Combat Robotics With Mech Warfare
MechWarfare is a combat battle between 2 walking robots in a city scape with streets, cars & small storm troopers. The 2 robots shoot airlift bbs at each other. Each robot has 4 target plates that register the hits on a score board the audience can see. There are also 2 large monitors showing the robots vision point of view. This is a competition with many different walking robots participating. We also talk about the robots at the arena.
Counterculture Labs: DIY Biology and Citizen Science
Counterculture labs has been coming to Maker Faire for over a decade and building cultures and community in the east Bay for even longer. Their take: Biotechnology has the potential to impact our lives as much or more than computers did in the 20th century, so everyone should get involved and have access to tools and knowledge if they’re interested. From mycology to micromitigation, kombucha to Covid they’re up for talking about it. And speaking of cultured creatures, visitors to the Foundry can visit the Kombucha Petting Zoo, see a running bioreactor, and check out our Agar Art!
Robot Dance Party & Comedy Show
Get ready to laugh! Our family of robots started with a 12-year-old’s summer goal of building an inMoov open-source humanoid. Now there are 3 robots laughing and entertaining audiences. Explore hands on electronics, software, and 3D printing working together, while picking your comedy preferences. Based on Gaël Langevin’s open source design, our robots use multiple Raspberry Pi & Arduinos, to control servos, monitor displays, text to speech to generate laughs with Python & C! OpenCV and DFRobot Ai devices provide face detection for an interactive experience!
Hip Monsters Present Robot Freedom
The focus of this year’s exhibit is safety, security and how to get started on your own projects. It will have two main exhibits and one side show. The main exhibits introduce core concepts of artificial intelligence and robotics suitable for kids and professionals alike, centered around fully autonomous robots.Step up to the robots and get hands-on with the future of making! In Talk To A Robot, chat with a steampunk-inspired machine through a keyboard, then switch between heuristic AI, traditional chatbots, and LLMs—and flip the alignment from good to evil—to see how different systems behave, where AI safety gets tricky, and what happens when a chatbot crosses the line. Then head over to Robots Making Decisions, where a larger robot shows how machines sense, decide, and interact with the world. Experiment with sensors, RFID key cards, and BLE wearables while exploring agentic AI, security, peripheral devices, and the journey from cardboard prototype to production-ready parts using resin and silicone molding. It’s part robot lab, part playground, and all about making the machines do what you want.
Yolo Maker Guys: Robots, Dragons, & Machines That Move
What happens whena bunch ofcurious makers fromYolo County gettogether and startbuilding?Pretty much anything.The Yolo MakerGuys are bringinga delightfully unpredictablemash-up ofrobotics, clocks, dragons, kinetic art, lights, rovers, 3D printing, and plenty ofwonderfully weird stuffto Maker FaireBay Area 2026. Meet Dave’sCafebot, a rolling high-top table builtfrom a wheelchairbase and designedfor hanging outand sharing ideas. Check outCopperbot, a spectacularkinetic-art robotpacked with vacuumtubes, hundreds ofLEDs, cameras, sensors, stereo sound, flappingwings, and evena cup holder. Explore Doug’s whimsical3D-printed clocksand neon-lit creations, thenmeet a wholefleet of smallerbots—including mobiletea kettles, googly-eyed gourds, speedyhats, and aliens. It’s acelebration of makingwith wood, metal, plastic, wire, andwhatever else sparksan idea.Come see whathappens when makersfollow their curiosityand refuse tostop at “that’sprobably impossible.”
Assista3d — A Maker in Every Town
Check out the use specific robot from Elijah Peralta, a machinist and maker in Apple Valley, CA, where he runs Assista CNC, a small CNC machining and 3D-printing shop.Check out a a 6-axis robot on a 3-axis gantry for the fast food industry. His team are also promoting Assista3d, a free network of local 3D-printing makers, built so nobody has to pay shipping on a 3D print. Upload a part, see an instant price, and the job is automatically routed to the nearest maker — then you pick it up down the street. Makers join free, set their own prices, and keep 100% of what they earn. At the booth: a live demo of the instant-quote engine and the Uber-style auto-dispatch that matches jobs to the nearest printer, real parts printed for real neighbors, and the honest numbers behind bootstrapping a two-sided marketplace as a solo founder from Apple Valley.
Ascension AR From Nicky Alice
Last year at Maker Faire Bay Area, Nicky Alice brought the Tesseract — an infinite mirror light project that participants and makers alike could not stop talking about. This year, he brings something just as visually stunning and even more interactive. Ascension AR is an 8-foot-tall mirrored glass pyramid (95" with riser) constructed from a precisely engineered two-way mirror system and internal LED panel, transforming the structure into a fully immersive, multi-dimensional kaleidoscope. At its core, projected geometric pattern imagery reflects infinitely within the pyramid, fractalizing light, color, and motion into ever-evolving symmetrical forms.
Through an interactive AR headset connected to a live 360-degree camera inside the sculpture, participants can virtually step inside the pyramid itself. Rather than observing from the outside, viewers are enveloped within the kaleidoscope—navigating shifting geometric lightscapes that respond in real time to perspective and movement. Each interaction generates a unique visual journey, dissolving the boundary between observer and artwork.
Ascension AR explores perception, transformation, and the infinite nature of self through reflection and illusion. It functions simultaneously as portal and mirror—inviting awe, introspection, and wonder as participants witness themselves unfold within luminous, endlessly recursive geometry. Learn more on Instagram.
Get a Grip on Robotics!
Put on aglove, moveyour fingers, andwatch a robothand copy youin real time! Thisdelightfully DIY projectturnsVelostat, a pressure-sensitiveplastic, into homemadeflex sensors thattrack every bendof your fingers. Those signals controla 3D-printed, tendon-drivenrobotic hand, wherefishing line actslike tendons andservos provide themuscle. It’s partwearable tech, partrobotics lab, and100% maker magic.Advait Erigindindla, a 17-year-old high school student taught himself every skill this project needed, from CAD to electronics to programming, and I want to inspire other young people to start their own engineering journey. Come flex yourfingers, make themachine move, andsee how ahandful of clevermaterials can turnyour gestures intorobotic motion!
A Family Language Tutor: A Robot That Knows Who You Are and What You’re Learning
The Reachy Mini is a desktop robot kit and one family programmed it to be a personlized language tutor by Palo Alto siblings Tatiana, Yaroslav, and Andrey Tsyplikhin. The robot recognizes each family member’s face, pulls up a memory of what that person has been working on — vocabulary, grammar, past mistakes — and starts a spoken conversation pitched exactly to their level. Between sessions it tracks progress, so every chat picks up where the last one left off. Under the hood: face recognition, speech-to-text, an LLM-driven dialog engine, and a per-learner long-term memory store. Stop by, introduce yourself, and have a conversation — then come back later and see if it remembers you and what you practiced.
Crappy Happy Robots: A Maker Faire Favorite
Come play with our robot friends as they flap and wave and spin around. Maybe they don’t always “work”, but they do always play. This year we will be bringing an armful of our silly guys including BoxCat, NeoPixie, and the (Very Small) Robot Choir that you can program with color. We believe there is no age limit to building silly things for no reason, and the world would be better if there were more goofy robots in handmade sweaters.
The Foundry robotstravaganza is rounded out by a host of regional FTC teams that will be sharing their robots, their process, and engaging in some friendly competition. Come to Mare Island to see robots that span the spectrum from crappy happy play to sleek and serious service.
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