Machine constructing is each an artwork and a science. There’s artistry in designing machines to resolve issues creatively, and there’s a science to making use of engineering rules and technical know-how to construct instruments.
Hackster’s Machine Builder Competitors was an open problem to the group to develop an modern and practical machine. Partnered by Nordic Semiconductor, Autodesk, Particle, and PCBWay, the competition ran for six months and ended on June sixth, 2025.
We contacted the winners to be taught what goes into making a practical, modern machine.
Rad Ghost: Cup Shifting Robotic Arm
We would all like robots to take over the menial duties, fairly than the world, and Rad Ghost isn’t any completely different. Rad isn’t any fan of doing dishes and intends to create a dishwashing robotic to handle it.
In service to this long-term aim, he constructed a robotic arm to maneuver cups from one level to a different. The arm’s joints are powered by a cycloidal drive for easy and exact motion. The mission employs NVIDIA Isaac Sim as a digital twin for the bodily robotic.
Rad plans to finish the joint meeting and finish effector. His prize, the myCobot 280 robotic arm, shall be used for software program improvement and testing to keep away from interference from the mechanical and electrical components of the cup transferring robotic.
Gabriel Alejandro Giraldo Santiago: Cosmic IoT Communicator
Santiago’s machine is an IoT platform for simulated satellite tv for pc reception and communication, and it received the Most Prone to Appeal to Aliens award.
The Cosmic IoT Communicator is designed to obtain and decode actual SSTV indicators from satellites, add the decoded knowledge to the cloud through the nRF9151 package, and simulate communication with aliens utilizing AI-generated patterns. These patterns shall be despatched by customers around the globe through the Sateliot low-earth orbit community, which is predicted to be absolutely lively in 2026.
Santiago created platform to advertise using satellite tv for pc communication know-how by non-specialist customers. It’s nonetheless in lively improvement because of the unavailability of some essential parts. He says his group is getting ready to launch a pilot section with Sateliot to “validate real-world efficiency and additional refine the system earlier than full deployment.”
Stephen Kruglewicz: KitchenMind
The robotic rebellion may very effectively start in your kitchen. The KitchenMind is a great stock assistant that tracks your meals, suggests recipes, and reduces meals waste. It combines Seeed Studio’s SenseCap Watcher, the Nordic Semiconductor nRF7002 DK, and the DFRobot UNIHIKER to offer an efficient kitchen administration resolution.
KitchenMind builds on Kruglewicz’s authentic, award-winning design doc for a wise stock assistant, including predictive analytics, sensible reminders, and real-time stock monitoring. Kruglewicz plans to increase the stock assistant’s present options to incorporate meals recognition, expiration monitoring, and dynamic recipe suggestions.
Cameron Coward: CamRo
Cameron Coward, serial hobbyist and Hackster PRO contributor, received the Machine Builder Grand Prize for CamRo, a digital camera robotic able to capturing dynamic, 360-degree product movies.
CamRo was constructed for Coward’s YouTube channel, Serial Hobbyism, the place he evaluations electronics and showcases his creations. Within the fast-paced world of YouTube, presentation is simply as essential as execution, and “sturdy visuals” are wanted to face out. So, he devised an open supply digital camera robotic to seize product movies.
CamRo strikes in two axes: a rotating turntable and a pivoting arm. Its CubeMars actuators can deal with heavy DSLR and mirrorless cameras with out pressure. Additionally they permit the graceful, non-jittery motion wanted for product movies.
Coward picked up CNC programming and guide machining whereas he labored as a mechanical designer. He says an enormous a part of machining is having a plan of operations earlier than turning on the mill or lathe. Planning will stop most errors, and so they’ll be simpler to appropriate once they do occur.
In typical maker trend, Coward plans to increase the robotic’s capabilities and construct an app for extra management.
Jaime Andres Rincon Arango: Clever Well being Care Beacon
Arango is a researcher on the College of Burgos, Spain. His work is centred on assistive robotics for aged people dwelling alone and in distant areas. He’s enthusiastic about making use of rising applied sciences to medication and enhancing folks’s high quality of life.
The Clever Well being Care Beacon has sensors for measuring coronary heart charge and oxygen saturation, and features a robotic arm for capturing coronary heart and respiratory sounds. It’s constructed on the nRF9151 package and leverages the Particle Boron 404X and different parts for sign acquisition.
Arango is an enormous sci-fi buff, and the clever well being care beacon was impressed by movies like Elysium and Prometheus. The beacon builds on a earlier robotic arm mission and handles sign acquisition and ECG pre-diagnosis at a decrease stage, decreasing value and complexity.
He shall be engaged on new variations that embrace LoRa and algorithms for imitation studying.
Nekhil: Sensible Capsule Dispenser
Nekhil’s sensible capsule dispenser automates remedy reminders and shelling out utilizing an online app and the Particle platform. He says it addresses the failings of guide capsule organizers, and he began developing it after seeing a beloved one wrestle with their remedy schedule.
The sensible capsule dispenser is powered by the Particle Photon 2 and gives real-time notifications and schedule administration through an online app interface. It contains a momentary push button and a 2-inch show that exhibits the present time.
The shelling out mechanism was essentially the most difficult a part of the mission. Nekhil selected to construct on an current capsule dispenser design as a substitute of making a brand new one from scratch. A stepper motor is used to show the capsule tray and drop a capsule right into a ready cup.
Genozen: The Guardian
The Guardian is a firefighting robotic designed to help first responders autonomously. It may possibly drive to GPS waypoints, spot flames and hotspots, and carve a fireline to cease spreading wildfires. It additionally has a built-in water pump to douse small flare-ups.
Genozen grew to become inquisitive about wildland firefighting after the Southern California wildfires. He had the concept for an autonomous floor rover “that would help firefighters straight and improve their situational consciousness.”
He plans so as to add extra options to the Guardian robotic, together with an online interface, Bluetooth networking, sensor fusion, and a robotic arm for instrument dealing with.
The winners of the Machine Builder Competitors all selected to create instruments to resolve issues close to and expensive to them. The perfect options come from tackling issues you’ve private expertise with.
It’s okay to take inspiration from those that have labored on comparable tasks, and in case you are making an attempt to get extra eyes in your mission, bear in mind what Coward says: “Presentation is simply as essential as execution.”
