If you have been waiting for an affordable quadrupedal robot to experiment with at home, the wait is finally almost over. Nearly two years ago, we were first introduced to Eric Wu’s open source robot named Q8bot. Thanks to its unique design, Q8bot was both very capable and relatively inexpensive, which are qualities that don’t normally go together in the world of robotics. Unfortunately, there was a catch — you had to source all of the parts and assemble the robot on your own.
That’s a bigger project than many people want, which limited the reach of Q8bot. But now Wu is back with an upgraded version of the robot called Q8botOne. This time around, you don’t have to do anything other than click an order button. Q8botOne — which comes fully assembled — will soon be launching on Crowd Supply.
A disassembled robot (📷: ZeroWire Robotics)
Q8botOne is a four-legged robot designed to fit in the palm of your hand, but it still has what it takes to perform dynamic movements like walking, trotting, and jumping right out of the box.
Instead of relying on bundles of cables routed throughout the body like many other robots of this scale, all of the electronics are integrated directly onto a central PCB. This approach improves reliability while also reducing weight and simplifying maintenance. It also gives the robot a very clean appearance that stands out from typical DIY robotics projects.
The robot uses eight DYNAMIXEL XL-series actuators paired with lightweight parallel-linkage legs built from MJF 3D-printed components and ball-bearing joints. An ESP32-C3-MINI-N4 microcontroller handles onboard processing, while power comes from a rechargeable lithium-ion battery with integrated protection circuitry.
Every Q8botOne package will also include a custom wireless controller dongle that comes pre-paired with the robot. The controller includes a joystick, buttons, and USB-C connectivity for both power and communication with a computer. Once connected to a PC, users can access software tools for advanced configuration and control.
A Qwiic-compatible connector allows users to add sensors from companies like SparkFun and Adafruit, and a UART interface can support co-processors such as a Raspberry Pi, providing up to 5V at 3A of power.
Like the original Q8bot, the entire platform will remain open source. Mechanical designs are being developed in Onshape, while firmware and hardware files will eventually be published through the ZeroWireRobotics GitHub organization after the Crowd Supply campaign concludes.
