Project Hexapod, based in Somerville, MA (just outside Cambridge), just passed their requested $65,000 funding on Kickstarter, which is great, because Project Hexapod is building a 4,000-pound, 18-foot-wide, two-seat rideable six-legged robot. Its name will be Stompy. We love this project.
What's especially cool about Stompy is that the whole project is being done at a crazy low cost; $65,000 might as well be pennies, considering the usual multimillion-dollar cost of giant robots like this. The hydraulic legs can produce a total of 18,000 pounds of force, enough to move 2 to 3 mph while carrying up to 1,000 pounds, or 1 mph while carrying 4,000 pounds. It's useful as well; it's able to move over terrain that typical wheeled or treaded vehicles can't. And, as befits a Kickstarter-funded project, the team will be releasing all of its data (plans, CAD, diagrams, that kind of thing) to everyone, with the hopes of encouraging the building of more giant robots.
Plus it's named Stompy. You can still fund the project over at Kickstarter; the rewards for funding are pretty sweet (like the bumper sticker at the top there).
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