I came up with the idea for this laser robot after we got our 2nd kitten, who had an absolutely endless appetite for play. My wife and I were very busy with work at the time and so were having a hard time keeping him entertained.

I taped a laser pointer to a servo and an Arduino and had it move the laser dot around for him, and he was instantly occupied. I had the idea to put in a second axis and miniaturize the design.

I added the red “laser gun” as a safety feature to visually remind the user that the laser would come from that part of the robot.