Strandbeest Kit Comes to Life with Dual Stepper Motors

If you’ve been following my various projects for any length of time, you’ve certainly noticed that I have a “bit” of an interest in walking robots, specifically Strandbeests. After starting from scratch several times with varying levels of success, I finally decided to try out one of the kits that you can find online for around $10. I’m happy to report that they are well-made, and do indeed crawl along a desk under wind power as expected.

A wind-powered ’beest, however, was never my goal, and in order to match my other contraptions, I soon discarded the fan blades in favor of a pair of stepper motors lodged in the middle of the model. Each side is driven by its own stepper, able to turn the device like a tank with six legs forming each “tread.”

Control for the device is accomplished with a simple key fob remote, which sends signals to an Arduino Nano. It then translates these impulses into motor signals, allowing the legs to walk and turn on command. While it works under manual control at this point, one could expand it greatly to follow a per-determined path or even add sensors for obstacle avoidance.

If you’d like to build your own, instructions are available on Hackster, and an overview of the process can be seen in the video below. As shown, it’s a very accessible project, able to be constructed with around $25 in materials and very basic shop tools.