Meet Stompy, the Giant Rideable Hexapod Robot

We’ve written about Kickstarter before.  There are a lot of interesting things being funded there, but they’re not all products.  Some projects are art or in this case a combination of art, education, and experimentation.  Meet “Stompy”, a giant rideable Hexapod Robot.  Stompy has both a blog and a Kickstarter project.

The Kickstarter project funded to the tune of almost $98,000, but Stompy is still not finished, though he does seem to be moving right along.  Here is what the finished concept is supposed to look like:

Stompy is a giant rideable hexapod robot…

Stompy is being fabricated with welded slot-and-tab construction:

Welded slot and tab construction…

I’ve seen this kind of construction before among the more sophisticated fabrication crowd using plasma cutters or waterjets to cut out the parts.  Stompy’s crew is using a waterjet service to make their parts and then they’re Mig and Tig welding them together.  They have a clever idea for how to hold things in place for the welding with bolts:

Note that “Plus” sign…

The plus holds a nut so the two can be bolted together.  The bolt just keeps the tabs in the slots so you can go around and weld it up.   Clever!

There are a lot more pictures on the blog, so check it out.  I love their bumper sticker: