The StrandMaus: An RC Theo Jansen-Style Walking Contraption

Hackster team member Jeremy S. Cook has been hard at work building a Jansen Walker for quite some time — several years actually. After starting out with a four-legged beast several feet tall, then an eight-legged contraption the size of a golf cart (neither of which worked), he finally decided to make a “prototype” dubbed the “StrandMaus.” Unfortunately, this third iteration, though it did walk, was generally unstable, and since it was held together by hot glue soon became non-functional.

Finally, for his fourth attempt he chose to make his ‘Maus a bit bigger, use better power transmission methods (including gears, not just linkages), and implement a turret-mounted GoPro camera. Thanks to this and much larger motors, the Rev1 StrandMaus, or FPV.

StrandMaus due to it’s vision capabilities, is able to terrorize garages and other relatively smooth surfaces with near impunity! See it in action below!