Tom Hunt, who started studying Design Engineering at the University this September, and his brother Felix created BrailleGo!, a portable device that can produce Braille documents for around £100 – a fraction of the cost of existing technologies.
Competing for the UK, the brothers were awarded the Best Start-Up Idea prize at the 2026 World Robot Olympiad (WRO) European Open Championship in Zagreb, Croatia. They also secured second place in both the European and global rankings in the competition's Senior Future Innovators category.
Designed and built by the duo under the team name Hunt Robotics, BrailleGo! is a compact printer capable of producing short-run Braille documents such as children's books, museum guides, public information leaflets, and meeting agendas.
While commercial Braille embossers can be bulky and cost more than £1,000, BrailleGo! can be built for around £100 using readily available components and 3D-printed parts.
Rather than pursuing commercialisation, the brothers plan to make BrailleGo!'s code, design files and assembly instructions open source, allowing others around the world to build, improve and adapt the technology for their own communities, demonstrating how engineering innovation can be used to tackle social challenges and improve inclusion.
The idea grew from a family experience. The brothers' grandfather, a Yorkshire-born engineer who contributed to the early development of the Jodrell Bank Observatory, lost his sight in his sixties. Through their mother’s volunteering with the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB), Tom and Felix became further aware of the challenges people and organisations can face in accessing printed Braille materials.
They set out to design a solution that was not only affordable but easy to reproduce.
The international judging panel praised the project's technical quality, including its 3D design and electronics, as well as the brothers' teamwork and commitment to solving a real-world problem. Judges also highlighted the fact that the pair developed the device independently, without the support of a coding or maker club.
The competition brought together 220 national-winning teams from 45 countries under the theme Robots Meet Culture, which challenged participants to explore how technology can improve access to arts, heritage, and cultural experiences.
Tom, aged 19, said: "BrailleGo! was a real challenge to design and build, so seeing it work and produce readable Braille, and then doing so well in Zagreb, is a fantastic feeling. I'm proud that we made something affordable that could be genuinely useful, and I hope other people will build on it once we share the designs.”
16-year-old Felix said: "Going to Zagreb was an amazing experience. I really enjoyed meeting teams from around the world and seeing all the different ideas they had come up with. Building BrailleGo! taught me a lot about engineering, problem-solving and teamwork, and I'm excited to take that experience with me when I go to university.”
Eleanor Southwood, Director of Impact and External Affairs at Fight for Sight, said: "The concept of an affordable, portable Braille printer for short-run needs is brilliant, and I can imagine many uses for it. Well done, Tom and Felix."
Gareth James, co-founder of STEMpura, which leads the UK's participation in the World Robot Olympiad, added: "Tom and Felix have shown what young people can do when they are given a real problem to solve and a stage to solve it on. BrailleGo! is brilliant engineering with a generous heart, and we are proud to have been able to see them develop from the UK final to Zagreb."