R2D2 was developed and built in the UK by professional engineers
In 1976, Peteric Engineering was an engineering company that was leasing space at London's Shepperton Studios.
The company was headed by Dr. David Watling, a chartered mechanical engineer and a doctor of physics.
Although located in Shepperton Studios, Peteric were doing fabrication for customers outside of the studio including the aircraft industry and specialty automotive commissions and eventually moving into the pharmaceutical industry.
"We had some quite good welders at the time. We had some really skillful people.
One of the things we used to do at that time is we used to make bits and pieces for the aircraft industry.
We used to weld boxes out of 10 thou thick new metal.
Now that is really ... quite difficult." - Dr. David Watling
"The Strippit machine which we used was mechanical. It was a 30 ton [punch] press. We would work out exactly where all the holes had to come and what shape the holes would be.
We would make a metal template which had a hole punched in the center of where that hole ought to be.
That template would be put on a table. Everytime you would put your stlyus in the hole in the tempale it would punch a hole in the metal that you were wanting to work on.So you went around the pantograph, did all the holes on one side, changed the punch, and then did all the ones...
So those panels would all have been within a few thousands of an inch ... absolutely identical
" - Dr. David Watling
"We had 60 ton folding machines with very accurate setting bars at the back where you could push you metal through and it would always fold to the same place.
So there were all sort of very accurate folding devices.
So you could generate all sort of shapes ... very accurately" - Dr. David Watling
The seven aluminum R2-D2 props made for the first Star Wars film by Peteric Engineering really do stand apart from the majority of film props as examples of precision engineering fabrication.
Lucasfilm special production and mechanical effects supervisor John Stears passed the responisibly for these seven aluminum props to aerospace and automotive engineers for final development and fabrication.
Orignal production aluminum head details from The Empire Strikes Back. This set of bezels appear to have been sourced from an employee who previously worked at ILM. This set can be matched to video of the ILM employee showing parts during an interview. These were auctioned with certificate of authenticity by The Propstore.
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RESEARCH:R2-D2 Traction Foot Drive Train
Research notes, drawings, and photos used to recreate the outer "traction" foot drive train particular to the 3-leg remote
control prop in the orginal 1977 Star Wars movie. The orginal film used drive train was designed by the "Dean of Special Effects" John Stears.
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RESEARCH:R2-D2 Traction Foot Motor
Research notes, drawings, and photos used to track down and source the foot motors used on the 3-leg remote
control prop in the orginal 1977 Star Wars movie. The motors were orginally selected and sourced by the "Dean of Special Effects" John Stears..
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ARCHIVE:R2-D2 Mechanical Arm
Orignal aluminum casting sourced from Petric Engineering. The arm is in a raw unpainted state with the tapered mid section not as finished as its screen used counterparts and appears to have been initially cast to provide the basic shape and then further finished by hand.
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RESEARCH:R2-D2 Traction Foot Shell
Research notes, drawings, and photos used to recreate the outer "traction" foot shell particular to the 3-leg remote
control prop in the orginal 1977 Star Wars movie. The feet on this particular foot were designed to accomidate motors,
a gear train, and wheels.
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GREBBLE:Vickers Passenger Reading Lamp
Originally from a Viscount 700 series aricraft was a real world component selected by set director Roger Christian. Three reading lamps were used on each R2-D2 including one that was used to project the holographic distress message from Princess Leia.
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GREBBLE:LUCAS 17W Windscreen Motor
Orginally from the BMC AUSTIN MORRIS 250 JU appears to be the motors used on the remote control R2-D2 from the orignal Star Wars film. The armature housing is a visual match to several behind the scene photos from 1976. The unique bolt pattern matches 3 seperate production blueprints.
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ARCHIVE:R2-D2 Transparent Heads Mold
Orginal production tooling made from fiberglass and purposed as a vacum form mold to create transparent heads. This mold was made by Elstree Studios for the production of the Empire Strikes Back. This mold was auctioned by Elstree and subsequnetly donate to a school and then listed for sale on eBay by the school.
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ARCHIVE:R2-D2 Main Radar Eye
A resin cast from The Revenge of the Sith. This cast was made by members of the production crew at the time time as the screen used R4-G9 head. This was eventually listed for sale on eBay by the production crew member.
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ARCHIVE:R2-D2 Main Radar Lens
A resin cast from The Revenge of the Sith. This cast was made by members of the production crew at the time time as the screen used R4-G9 head. This was eventually listed for sale on eBay by the production crew member.
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REPLICA PARTS:OpenR2 ANH Head Bearing
provide an exacting period correct Digital Twin combined with a modern ROS automous archtiecture, can we help fans turn thier homemade replica props into fully real robots?
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ARCHIVE:R2-D2 Ankle Detail
provide an exacting period correct Digital Twin combined with a modern ROS automous archtiecture, can we help fans turn thier homemade replica props into fully real robots?
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ARCHIVE:R2-D2 Shoulder Detail
A resin cast from The Revenge of the Sith. This cast was made by members of the production crew at the time time as the screen used R4-G9 head. This was eventually listed for sale on eBay by the production crew member.
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ARCHIVE:R2-D2 Body Detail
provide an exacting period correct Digital Twin combined with a modern ROS automous archtiecture, can we help fans turn thier homemade replica props into fully real robots?
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ARCHIVE:R2-D2 Battery Detail
provide an exacting period correct Digital Twin combined with a modern ROS automous archtiecture, can we help fans turn thier homemade replica props into fully real robots?