Strandbeest Now Launches Rockets!

If you’ve been following my builds for any amount of time, you know they always seem to come back to Strandbeests. These fascinating…

Jeremy Cook
6 years agoRobotics

If you’ve been following my builds for any amount of time, you know they always seem to come back to Strandbeests. These fascinating mechanical creatures somehow turn a number of legs into the equivalent of a wheel, so after motorizing and remote controlling several, what’s left? A weaponized walker, of course!

While “weaponized” may be an exaggeration, this little guy is able to shoot a pair of bottle rockets out of conduit strapped to either side of its chassis. With a black and grey paint job, it resembles something in between a WWII battleship and an AT-ST from Star Wars — or perhaps something out of Mech Warrior if you so prefer.

Rocket ignition is handled by a pair of relays and a short strip of Nitinol wire, which heats up when current is passed through it. Control is provided by an Arduino Nano, along with the popular HC-05 Bluetooth module which allows for phone-Strandbeest interface. One interesting build challenge was actually sourcing a connector robust enough to hold these thin wires. After a few tries using alligator clips, lever nuts did the job quite well, though the levers are strong enough to pinch fingers if you’re not careful. It was definitely a fun build, and be sure to check out the whole story in the video below.

More information on components used, Arduino code, and 3D print files are are available on its Hackster page. While an interesting project, remote ignition and fireworks can be dangerous, so I don’t necessarily recommend trying to duplicate it!

Jeremy Cook
Engineer, maker of random contraptions, love learning about tech. Write for various publications, including Hackster!
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