Stompy, The 18-foot, 2-ton Hexapod Is Ready For Production

Stampy

Over at the Artisan’s Asylum hackerspace in Somerville, MA, something terrifically awesome is happening. They’re building an 18-foot diameter, 2-ton ridable hexapod that can walk over a car. It’s called Project Hexapod and they need your help.

Over the last year or so, the team behind Project Hexapod has developed an amazingly inexpensive hydraulic control system for each of the six legs and created a 1:1 model of the leg fastened to a wheeled cart to get the kinematics down pat. Now, with thousands of pounds of steel already watercut for the legs, they’re turning to the community for a little help with the welding.

The Project Hexapod team estimates they have about 1100 hours of welding time in front of them. They’re looking for a few people around the Boston area that are familiar with steel fabrication and are willing to work on a two-ton robot that can walk over a Volkswagen Beetle.

The guys have put up a little application form if you meet those basic requirements. You can also check out their Facebook page for any announcements and a whole lot of pictures.

22 thoughts on “Stompy, The 18-foot, 2-ton Hexapod Is Ready For Production

      1. Not so fake. I bought a hexapod from that guy which has the same construction principles. I think the algorithm for movement he uses can also be used in the smaller version.

    1. There already are welding robots, most cars for example are robo-welded. It’s the price that’s a bit of a problem. It’d be a challenge to make a decent skilled powerful one for less than they cost to buy.

      If you’re wondering what to call one, “Welder Welding Rodriguez” has a ring to it.

  1. So, what is Stompy going to be used for?

    If they’re asking for “thousands of man hours of work” from volunteers, then they need to be far more upfront about why they’re building it and what the end goal/purpose is – which they’ve been completely silent about.

    Due to the price tag this isn’t just a “we’re doing it because it’s awesome” project. The space required to store it, and the maintenance costs, means this isn’t just a hobby projtect. It smells like something that has an ultimately commercial purpose of some kind. Let’s also not forget that Boston Dynamics is somehow involved in this. Even if it is just a couple of their employees…and then there’s the mysterious DEKA, which smells an awful lot like a defense contractor.

    1. Seems unlikely You Know Who would want amateurs up in their equipment, welding their stuff. And it’s not like they’re short of money. Perhaps Stompy’s friends haven’t been making donations to the right people. As it goes, a suitcase full of money to the right government asshole can be a fantastically good investment.

      I can only think of one use for Stompy, and that’s stomping. How are “DEKA”, whoever they are, involved?

      Maybe now would be a good time to study the robotic lackeys of our same old flesh-based overlords. We might need to know where the weaknesses are!

    2. The guy who organized this project *used to* work at Boston Dynamics. I know him well. I rent a workspace down the hall from where this robot is being built. I can tell you this thing is definitely being built for no other reason than doing something awesome. Or to put it another way, “because they can.”

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