The Segway That Crawls

It crawls so you don't have to.

This weird-looking arthropodic robot looks like it crawled right out of some techno-Lovecraftian nightmare. Yet, there is method to this visual madness. It's based off of Dutch sculptor Theo Jansen's wind-powered monstrosities, the Strandbeests. The 12-legged design gives it a smoother gait as opposed to the jerky movements associated with eight or six-legged machines.

If you're wondering why it's supposed to have a more stable ride, aside from being able to train a machine gun at you better, it's because the Land Crawler eXtreme isn't really a weapons platform, at least not yet. The Land Crawler's main job is to ferry humans about, like some spider-legged Segway.

Vagabond Works developed the Land Crawler after seeing another Jansen-inspired robot walker, the Cajun Crawler. There are considerable differences. The Crawler eXtreme sports more robust legs, and doesn't have the skull-decorated handlebar and steering column that the Cajun version currently has.

The Land Crawler eXtreme may not be original, but it was enough to get Vagabond Works' robot spider featured on this year's Make: Tokyo Meeting. Not bad, for a remake of a remake.

[source: Vagabond Works via Singularity Hub]