Maker Faire Bay Area 2026 · Sep 25-27 · Mare Island, Vallejo, CA

DINO EGG Catch Challenge

Drive a dinosaur robot, catch an egg with its mouth, and take home a prize. Kanata the Kid Creator and his dad brought this hands-on exhibit, built from open-source robots and a lot of 3D printing, to Maker Faire Bay Area 2026.

Got a Kachi Button? Start here ↓Project on GitHub →

The DINO EGG Catch Challenge booth at Maker Faire Bay Area 2026: the banner, the dinosaur robot and spotted eggs on the blue arena — Our booth at Maker Faire Bay Area 2026

Did you win a Kachi Button?

Kachi Button keychain keyboard with three keys reading Go Go!, Hi! and Thx

Kachi Button is an open-source programmable keychain keyboard: three mechanical keys, a USB-C port, and nothing else. No batteries, no drivers, no app. Click it for fun, then plug it into a computer and each key types a phrase for real. "Kachi" is the Japanese sound of a click.

Out of the box

Go Go!top key
Hi!lower left
Thxlower right

Make it yours

1Plug it into a computer with a USB-C data cable.
2Open kachibutton.com in Chrome or Edge and click Connect USB.
3Type your own phrase for each key (up to 32 characters) and save. It stays on the keychain after you unplug.

Works as a normal keyboard on Windows, macOS and Linux.

Set up your keys at kachibutton.com →Kachi Button on GitHub →

The same button drives the dinosaur

At the booth, two Kachi Buttons plugged into the exhibit Mac are the robot's control panel. Go Go! switches modes, Hi! starts Auto Catch, Thx starts Auto Release, and a second unit is the big STOP button.

The other prize: a dino NFC keychain

Some eggs hold an original 3D-printed dinosaur keychain with an NFC tag inside instead of a Kachi Button. Four dinos were designed for the challenge and printed by the boxful.

Kanata cheering behind boxes of 3D-printed dinosaur keychains in yellow, orange, blue and teal — The printed keychains, ready to go into the eggs

Triceratops keychain design illustration — Design illustrations

Stegosaurus keychain design illustration — Design illustrations

How to play

Step 1
Catch!
Drive the dino up to an egg with the controller and grab it with its mouth - or press Hi! and let the robot line up and catch it by itself.
Step 2
Open!
Bring the egg back to the pink basket (Thx does this automatically), then crack your egg open.
Step 3
Win!
Inside is a Kachi Button or a dino NFC keychain. It's yours to keep!

At the booth

Three days at Mare Island. Kanata ran the booth with his dad, and visitors of all ages drove the dino, caught eggs and opened their prizes.

Kanata in a dinosaur hood and his dad giving a thumbs up in front of the DINO EGG Catch Challenge booth — Kanata and his dad at the booth

Kanata beside the blue arena while visitors try the dinosaur robot — Eggs, the pink basket and the dino in the arena

A young visitor watching the dinosaur robot pick up a spotted egg — Watching the catch

Visitors lining up at the booth under the LEARN BY DOING banner — The line to drive the dino

A crowd around the booth inside the Mare Island hall, with Kanata flashing a peace sign — A busy moment in the hall

Kanata's selfie in his dinosaur hood with visitors at the booth behind him — Kanata's booth selfie

Ways to control the dino

Manual Mode
A joystick-and-dial controller drives the base while a leader arm you move by hand puppets the neck and mouth. One person can do either; two people can do both at once.
Auto Catch (press Hi!)
The front camera finds the egg and the base lines itself up. Then an AI policy, trained from demonstrations recorded with the leader arm, takes over on the wrist camera and grabs the egg.
Auto Release (press Thx)
The dino finds the pink basket, drives up to it and plays back a recorded motion to drop the egg in.
Full Self-Catching (staff demo)
Say "catch the green egg". Gemini Robotics picks the egg on the overhead camera, you confirm by voice, and the dino drives, catches and returns on its own. Still in development.

Under the shell

Robot: An open-source LeKiwi mobile base with an SO-ARM101 arm, driven with LeRobot.
Dinosaur shell: 3D-printed head, jaws and neck covers designed in Fusion to fit around the original arm, so the gripper becomes the mouth.
Controller: A hand-built ESP32 controller in a 3D-printed fossil-themed case, with a spotted-egg joystick, a rotary dial and RGB lights, programmed in Arduino.
Vision: A local detector spots the green-, red- and yellow-spotted eggs and the pink basket - no cloud needed.
Egg-catching AI: An ACT policy trained on Google Colab from teleoperated demonstrations; the model is public on Hugging Face (CreatorKanata/act_dino_pick_egg).
Signboard: A big screen shows the overhead, front and wrist cameras, the current mode, and an egg-shaped outline that marks where to place the egg for a catch.
Safety: Everything runs from AC adapters, the robot stays inside a low fence, and a Kachi Button is the emergency stop.