The motorized sofa by Caltech Robotics Club (Photo – Screengrab)
What began as a friendly rivalry with Stanford has evolved into one of the quirkiest and most inventive projects to emerge from Caltech’s student community.
By Rena Kurlander
Inspired by a story about Stanford students strapping electric skateboards to a sofa, Caltech’s Robotics Club set out to build something faster, smarter, and undeniably cooler. Led by undergraduate Donny Lu, along with Myu Kim, Frank Gomez-Montalvo, and Luis Yael Serrano Laguna, the team transformed an abandoned couch from the basement of the Guggenheim Aeronautical Laboratory into a fully functional, battery-powered ride.
Now affectionately cruising around campus at a modest 10 mph, the motorized couch is more than just a joyride. Outfitted with scooter wheels, electric motors, and a custom-machined coupler (courtesy of alum Maxx Ibarra, BS ’25), the project showcases some serious engineering chops. While early ambitions to break speed records were eventually traded for safety and reliability, seatbelts—thankfully—are in the works.
But this isn’t the end of the road. The team is already exploring how to make the couch autonomous using GPS and lidar, with dreams of creating a self-driving sofa to ferry students across campus, no driver required. One idea on the table? A sofa-share service.
“Our goal is to make the couch even more unique,” Lu told Caltech Magazine. “We want it to take you from your dorm to your class autonomously.”
Read the full story in Caltech Magazine.
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