For many of us, R2D2 was one of the first “real” robots we wanted to “get to know” as a robot friend (sorry C3P0, you were just too opinionated). Tony Dyson was the master builder of the R2D2 droid, and he passed away on March 4, 2016 at the young age of 68.
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://community.robotshop.com/blog/show/tony-dyson-r2-d2