Usually writing a story about Intel would require a few lines on some new processor technology, however this time Intel is using a piece of technology it announced in January to power 3D printed, open-source robots that can tweet.

This is Jimmy, and he’s a 3D printed robot who will walk, talk, dance and tweet his way into your heart. And the best news? Most of him will be customisable with a 3D printer. Jimmy is the brainchild of Brian David Johnson from Intel in collaboration with developers from the University of Southern California, Olin College and Trossen Robotics.

If you’ve already fallen in love with Jimmy then you can follow his blog on Tumblr where there is a rather disturbing ‘Military Security Bot Designs’ blog post that could pre-empt a future with SkyNet in the killer robot army, go Jimmy. Jimmy is also on Twitter (@21crobot) where you can follow him on his adventures around the maker faire circuit and check in on the other robots he meets up with.

Later this year Intel will start selling ‘Jimmy’ kits which includes all of the parts like the motor, batteries, processor and wires while the rest of the hardware designs will be available online for you to 3D print. The version of Jimmy powered by Intel’s Edison system-on-a-chip will retail for $1 600 (approx. R16 700) with a reasearch version that will be powered by a significantly beefier Intel Core i5 chip available for $16 000.

[Image – YouTube]