Photos of Gael Langevin / InMoov Raphaël Creton

Sculptor/designer Gael Langevin from Paris is the creator of InMoov (and on twitter), one of the most popular 3D printing robotics projects in the short history of desktop 3D printing. With photos of various builds of InMoov popping up all over the world — and featured in a many articles looking to show off what is possible with a 3D printer — this humanoid robot is one of the most recognizable faces (literally) of the “3D printing revolution.”

This project sparked the early pioneers in the 3D printed open prosthetics movement — providing evidence to what would become the RoboHands and eNABLE communities with evidence that 3D printed limbs are mechanically possible on a budget — and creator Langevin has himself circled back around to actively participate in the open prosthetics movement himself with his participation in the Bionico project.

Right now, all over the world, 3D printing hackers and robotics enthusiasts are printing their own open source sub-$1k, life-size humanoid robot from the InMoov files shared online on repositories such as Thingiverse).

This has become a fairly popular, if challenging, printing project – and there are many new contributions from the community every week. Check out the InMoov blog and twitter account for updates and to see the additions others are making to these fascinating robots.

(NOTE: Thanks to Raphaël Creton for this series of new photos of Langevin and InMoov!)

Photos of Gael Langevin / InMoov Raphaël Creton

Matt Griffin Interviews Gael Langevin, Creator of InMoov

Hi! Who are you, and what do you do?

Hello, my name is Gael Langevin, I’m a Sculptor/Designer, French and living in Paris. I have started the InMoov project in January 2012.

What are your go-to machines? (Desktop printers, services, hand tools, etc!)

As a sculptor/designer I need to use all kinds of materials, plaster, stone, wood, metal, plastics, resin, clay, so the tools and machines need to follow my needs. I have most of the hand tools, but also some machines like a lathe, CNC, drill bank, pentograf 2D, combined cutting table.and of course recently a 3D printer. But as a Maker I often create my own tools for some special purposes.

Photos of Gael Langevin / InMoov Raphaël Creton

And what software do you use to get your work done? (Design packages, CAM software, slicers, host software?)

I design every 3D models in Blender, and finishing with NetFabb Basic + Kisslicer. I also use a lot Illustrator and Photoshop.

What is one (or what are some) of your designs that you’d like for everyone to check out?

Check InMoov, it is my personal project. It is the first Open Source 3D printed Humanoid robot. I design each part of this robot to fit any 3D printer with a build area of 12cm3. I have gathered a large community around InMoov, and there is hundreds of other projects through out the world based on InMoov.

Photos of Gael Langevin / InMoov Raphaël Creton

What is a design challenges that you have faced (and perhaps or perhaps overcome) when creating your work?

Creating the current 194 parts of InMoov to be ready for printing, was a challenge. You see, each part has to respect my sculptural goal, but it also needs to be functional, and designed to be totally 3D printable with any FDM printer. The sculpting of the head with it’s jaw and eyes mechanism was a challenge. But it is interesting to see the reactions of humans when they look at it, InMoov is very appreciated.

It is delicate to surf on the edge of the uncanny valley.

Photos of Gael Langevin / InMoov Raphaël Creton

What challenge do you most look forward to tackling in the future?

Hey, a robot without legs? Okay that is what I’m working on now. I think this quit a challenge!!

My recently re-designed InMoov hand for prosthetic purpose is now finished and I handed it to the Bionico project for their programming research. It will surely help a great deal of people in the near future.

Photos of Gael Langevin / InMoov Raphaël Creton

Any pointers for those just starting out with design and 3D printing?

Mmmh, who would recommend Blender to start designing… Me!!

If you are looking for a 3D printer, think about getting a printer which can also do other materials than only PLA, you will have more options later when you start to get confident with printing.

Photos of Gael Langevin / InMoov Raphaël Creton

Every Thursday is #3dthursday here at Adafruit! The DIY 3D printing community has passion and dedication for making solid objects from digital models. Recently, we have noticed electronics projects integrated with 3D printed enclosures, brackets, and sculptures, so each Thursday we celebrate and highlight these bold pioneers!

Have you considered building a 3D project around an Arduino or other microcontroller? How about printing a bracket to mount your Raspberry Pi to the back of your HD monitor? And don’t forget the countless LED projects that are possible when you are modeling your projects in 3D!

The Adafruit Learning System has dozens of great tools to get you well on your way to creating incredible works of engineering, interactive art, and design with your 3D printer! We also offer the LulzBot TAZ – Open source 3D Printer and the Printrbot Simple Metal 3D Printer in our store. If you’ve made a cool project that combines 3D printing and electronics, be sure to let us know, and we’ll feature it here!