strandbeest

38 Articles

Building A 3D-Printed Strandbeest

January 16, 2025 by 16 Comments

The Strandbeest is a walking machine, a creation of the celebrated artist Theo Jansen. They can look intimidating in their complexity, but it’s quite possible to build your own. In fact, if you’ve got a 3D-printer, it can be remarkably straightforward, as [Maker 101] demonstrates.

The build relies on an Arduino Uno as the brains. It’s equipped with an L293D motor driver shield to run two DC gear motors which drive the walking assemblies. Power is courtesy of a 3-cell lithium-polymer battery. The chassis, legs, and joints are all 3D-printed, and rather attractively in complimentary colors, we might add.

Controlling this little Strandbeest is simple. [Maker 101] gave the Arduino an infrared sensor which can pick up signals from a simple IR remote control. It can be driven backwards and forwards or turned left and right. What’s more, it looks particularly elegant as it walks—a hallmark of a good Strandbeest design.

Design files are available online for the curious. We love a good Strandbeest build, and some can even be useful, too! Video after the break.
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Mobile Coffee Table Uses Legs To Get Around

September 10, 2024 by 22 Comments

For getting around on most surfaces, it’s hard to beat the utility of the wheel. Versatile, inexpensive, and able to be made from a wide array of materials has led to this being a cornerstone technology for the past ten thousand years or so. But with that much history it can seem a little bit played out. To change up the locomotion game, you might want to consider using robotic legs instead. That’s what [Giliam] designed into this mobile coffee table which uses custom linkages to move its legs and get itself from place to place around the living room.

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Build A Strandbeest Replica Of Your Very Own

December 3, 2023 by 1 Comment

[Theo Jansen] is famous for his giant walking Strandbeest creations. They’re elegant, impressive, and powered by nature, and their walking mechanism is a thing of beauty. If you’ve ever wanted to build your own, [Antonio Garcia] has just the guide to get you started on the smaller scale.

Unlike so many other builds today, this one features some good old fashioned craft techniques. The build uses popsicle sticks for the legs, what appear to be toothpicks for the joints, and a cardboard box for the main body. A small brushed DC motor is used for propulsion to keep things easy, which runs off a few AA batteries. It’s a gearmotor, which gives it plenty of torque to propel the walking mechanism without undue strain.

It may not be powered by nature, and it may not be taller than most humans, but it’s still got an appealing gait and it still inspires us with its design. If you want to learn more, go ahead and take a gander at [Theo Jansen’s] own designs and see what you can pick up. Video after the break.

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TV personality and maker, Adam Savage, sits on a chair attached to a milk crate on wheels. It is situated inside an assortment of steel tubes forming the legs and body of a strandbeest walking machine.

Human-Powered Strandbeest

January 10, 2023 by 6 Comments

Once you’ve seen a strandbeest, it’s hard to forget the mesmerizing movement of its mechanical limbs. [Adam Savage] built a pedal-powered strandbeest in (more than) one day in full view of the public at the San Francisco Exploratorium.

One of the biggest challenges with building strandbeests is the sheer number of parts required to build a walking machine. It becomes clear rather quickly how big of an advantage the wheel is for part count on a device. Add in a few seemingly small design errors, and you might not have any forward motion at all.

[Savage]’s build takes us through all the ups and downs of this process, including lots of wrenching, welding, and more sneakers than Squitter the Spider could wear. The final product is unwieldy, impractical, and beautiful. What more could a maker ask for?

If you need more strandbeest goodness, check out this more practical strandbeest bicycle, this strandbeest Venus rover concept, or Jeremy Cook’s talk about designing strandbeest bots.

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Omnidirectional Walker With Wheeled Feet

July 26, 2022 by 4 Comments

[James Bruton] is on a quest to explore all the weird and wonderful methods of robot locomotion, and in his latest project created an omnidirectional walker that can move in any direction instantaneously.

The walker actually makes use of three independent four-legged Strider mechanisms, connected in a triangle at 120deg. Wheels are attached to the bottom of each leg, oriented at a right angle to the leg’s plane of motion to allow the foot to slide. Varying the relative speed and direction of each of the mechanisms lets the robot move in any direction, similar to his ball-wheeled robot. Each strider mechanism uses a single motor and looks similar to Strandbeest walkers, but it lifts its feet to traverse rougher terrain. [James] demonstrates this with some obstacles, and found that moving in such an orientation that all three sets of legs provide the best results.

[James] planes to build a larger rideable version, but we think he should mount a chest of Sapient Pearwood to carry all his stuff and name it The Luggage.

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A man riding a buggy pulled by a wooden contraption

Maakrapu Is A Buggy Drawn By A Five-Legged Beast

October 3, 2021 by 18 Comments

The steampunk aesthetic can take on many forms, and while pipes, valves, and boilers can look great, having complicated machinery with lots of moving parts really makes your project shine. A team of steampunk enthusiasts over at Tampere Hacklab did this by building a vehicle named Maakrapu. It’s a two-wheeled buggy that looks like it’s being pulled forward by some kind of five-legged creature. The extremely smooth motion of its legs conjures up images of lobsters or crabs (“Maakrapu” means “land crab” in Finnish), and is also reminiscent of Theo Jansen’s Strandbeesten.

The wooden legs are linked together with a metal crankshaft, which was welded together from plasma-cut parts. A steering wheel is included to orient the legs in the direction of travel, although the actual steering of the vehicle is done through differential braking. An earlier version had no propulsion and was meant for downhill riding only, but this latest model comes with an electric motor and a battery, making it actually somewhat useful as an urban runabout.

The video embedded below shows the design of the Maakrapu as well as a long drive from the center of Tampere back to the Hacklab. If you like vehicles with lots of little moving legs like this, check out the Strandbeest Bicycle. For a more literal “steam”-punk experience, try this steam-powered bike.

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Tiny ESP32 Strider Walks The Walk

September 6, 2021 by 3 Comments

Wheels might be the simplest method of locomotion for robots, but walkers are infinitely more satisfying to watch. This is certainly the case for [Chen Liang’s] tiny Strider walker controlled by a ESP32 camera board.

The Strider mechanism might look similar to Strandbeest walkers, but it lifts its feet higher, allowing it to traverse rougher terrain. [Chen]’s little 3D printed version is driven by a pair of geared N20 motors, with three legs on each side. The ESP32 camera board allows for control and an FPV video feed using WiFi, with power coming from a 14500 LiFePO4 battery. The width required by the motors, leg mechanisms, and bearings means the robot is quite wide, to the point that it could get stuck on something that’s outside the camera’s field of view. [Chen] is working to make it narrower by using continuous rotation servos and a wire drive shaft.

We’ve seen no shortage or riffs on the many-legged walkers, like the TrotBot and Strider mechanism developed by [Wade] and [Ben Vagle], and their website is an excellent resource for prospective builders.

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