Maker Jeremy S. Cook has been building Theo Jansen-style walkers for literally years, and after several iterations has come up with what he calls the “ClearCrawler.” 

This little guy stands at just over 15 inches tall — including its comparatively large clear cylindrical head — and travels around via a pair of motors that move four legs on either side like tank treads.

For control, Cook is using an Arduino Nano onboard, along with a motor driver, plus an Uno and joystick shield as the remote unit. Communication between the two is accomplished by a pair of nRF24L01+ radio modules. 

Code for the project is available on GitHub, and the build is split up into an electronics and mechanical section in the videos below.

When you want to build a walking robot, the normal route is to individually control each leg with a number of servos or other actuators. Maker Jeremy S. Cook, however, took a different approach with his ‘ClearCrawler,’ using only a pair of motors to power eight legs. These legs are divided up into sets of four on either side of the bot, allowing for differential control similar to a tank.

The leg linkage design is based on Theo Jansen’s Strandbeest mechanism, and a clear head is also implemented with a pair of 8×8 MAX7219 LED matrix eyes. Onboard control is handled by an Arduino Nano and an L298N driver board, while an Uno with a joystick shield serves as the user interface. Radio transmission is via two nRF24L01 modules.

Code for both the transmitter and receiver can be found on GitHub.

Strandbeests, as originally conceived, are gigantic PVC creatures that walk across the sand under wind power. While building one is certainly an enormous undertaking, smaller models are available that let you experience this strange kinetic motion in a more approachable size. These are also normally propelled by moving air, but maker “ArduinoDeXXX” decided to take things further with a pair of DC motors and an Arduino Nano.

The project came together over five distinct iterations, starting off with the normal wind-driven version, then adding uncontrolled motors. After that, the Arduino was included for automation, and this was upgraded with an IR remote. Finally, ArduinoDeXXX integrated simple gesture sensing using an array of IR LEDs.

You can see the mini Strandbeest in action below, along with a few “bonus” improvements at the end.

What has eight legs, a tail, and is powered by an Arduino Mega? The ClearWalker, of course!

This Strandbeest-style walker employs two motors, controlled by individual H-bridge relay modules to traverse forwards, backwards, and slowly rotate to one side or another via a hesitating leg motion. You can see how the electronics (including a bunch of LEDs) were integrated into this build in the video below.

If you’d like to try a similar control scheme for your ClearWalker/Strandbeest/treaded vehicle using an Arduino and smartphone, you can find it outlined in this Arduino Project Hub post. For the rest of the steps in this quite involved build, and more rather zany inventions, be sure to check out the “Jeremy Cook’s Projects” YouTube page.

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