Our Story
This page tells the story of Ohbot’s journey from hand-built early prototypes to an award-winning educational robot, now manufactured in the UK and used by thousands of schools worldwide.
Ohbot is already being used by over eight thousand schools and individuals in the UK and around the world, it was a finalist in the London BETT awards for ICT Innovator of the year in 2016 and Hardware, AV, VR/AR, Robotics or Digital Device in 2022. Ohbot also won a British Educational Suppliers Association ERA award in 2018 and was highly commended in 2022.
Ohbot is manufactured in the UK at Halliday's Mill in Gloucestershire.
The Ohbot team at Halliday's Mill, Gloucestershire.
Dan and Mat in that order
Ohbot wasn't designed in a day...
Halliday's Mill, Ohbot HQ, we're just inside that door, probably arguing over who gets to use the good screwdriver.
Susie and Em assemble Ohbots.
A 3D print of an eyelid for Ohbot 2.
This is from the days of the wooden Ohbots. Amity supervises Innes.
We used to have to make Ohbot lips by hand. It took ages. Dan spent 4 days making the lips for the Kickstarter robots.
Ohbot 1 eyelids had to be cut, shaped and drilled by hand.
Potato printing posters for Mozfest
Happy days delivering Ohbots to the post office.
Early on we had build days at Randwick village hall.
Ohbot 2: It was really hard to get the lips to come out straight. I won't miss the 'lip alligner'
Sally midway through counting thousands of screws for the Crowdfunder Ohbot 1 kits.
Crowdfunder Ohbots. Dan's dad spent hours filing neck pieces after a 'measurement incident'
Early wooden Ohbots preparing for BBC Make it Digital
George preparing the Ohbot 1 Crowdfunder kits.
Crowdfunder kits were assembled at home over a very long weekend.
Preparing the Ohbot 1 Crowdfunder kits. The square tiles on the coffee table used to sort the parts.
Halliday's Mill when water still flowed beneath
Then: Peter Van De Waals furniture workshop
Ohbot in the stratosphere 2017
Halliday's has a long interesting history of manufacturing including its use as Peter van der Waals furniture workshop.