DIY Walkers
  • Home
  • Walker ABC's
  • Build Instructions
    • TrotBot Builds >
      • TrotBot Linkage Plans
      • TrotBot's Legs Simplified
      • Quadruped TrotBot
      • Hexapod TrotBot
      • TrotBot
      • TrotBot, Ver 3
      • Mindstorms TrotBot, Ver 3
      • Wooden TrotBots by Automata Korea Design
      • 3D Printed TrotBot by Scott Anderson
      • Large-Scale TrotBot
    • Strider Builds >
      • Strider Linkage Plans
      • Strider Ver 3's Legs
      • Strider Ver 3's Frame
      • Mindstorms Strider Ver 3 Mod
      • Strider
      • Strider's Legs Simplified (ver 2's)
      • RC Strider
    • Mechanical Spider >
      • Klann's Linkage Plans
      • Klann Mechanical Spider - Climbing Mod
      • Klann's Spider, EV3 Long Legs
      • Klann High-Step Mod
      • Klann's Spider, Ver 2
      • Mindstorms Klann
    • Strandbeest
    • LEGO Spot Micro
    • Linkage Warm Ups >
      • Lever Paradox
      • LEGO Biters
      • LEGO Punchers (4 bar linkage warm-up)
      • LEGO Hopping Robot
    • Hiro Labo
    • Whegs (wheel-legs)
  • Customize
    • 4 Bar Linkage Optimizer
    • Strider Linkage Optimizer
    • Klann Linkage Optimizer
    • Strandbeest Optimizer for LEGO
    • TrotBot Optimizer
    • 4 Bar Walking Linkage
    • 6 Bar Walking Linkage
  • Linkage Simulation
    • Python Linkage Simulator
    • Scratch Linkage Simulator
  • Blog

DIY Walkers from LEGO-scale to SUV-scale

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Although the principles for building mechanical walkers are the same at both scales, the benefit of scaling up is how it magnifies issues with designs, providing feedback for fine tuning that is not available at LEGO-scale.
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TrotBot
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Wade, Ben and Team TrotBot in 2015

​​Welcome to DIYwalkers!  We started by building Joe Klann's amazingly robust Mechanical Spider, Theo Jansen's majestic Strandbeest and our own TrotBot and Strider mechanisms in LEGO. Then a team from our school attempted to scale up TrotBot in our garage, which resulted in a much deeper "learning experience". Hopefully our tools and lessons-learned can help you with designing and building mechanical walkers with greater functionality.

Good luck building and thanks for your interest!
Ben and Wade

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Navigating DIYwalkers
Since launching in 2016, DIYwalkers has grown organically as we conducted more experiments and added more builds.  Here's an overview to help you with navigating the site.​​
  1. Walker ABCs is a high-level overview of how mechanical walkers work, or don't.
  2. Our Blog posts go into more detail on specific problems/solutions, experiments, and ideas for taking walkers to the next level.
  3. Build Instructions provides linkage plans and LEGO Technic building instructions for a variety of walkers.
  4. Customize provides interactive simulators to modify walking mechanisms for building in LEGO and other robot building mediums, or for 3D printing.
  5. Linkage Simulation breaks down how to simulate linkages, and provides sample code in Python and Scratch.​​
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Strider Ver 3


​© Ben Vagle, Wade Vagle and DIYwalkers.com, 2016-2025. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s authors and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to DIYwalkers.com with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.   Contact:  [email protected]
  • Home
  • Walker ABC's
  • Build Instructions
    • TrotBot Builds >
      • TrotBot Linkage Plans
      • TrotBot's Legs Simplified
      • Quadruped TrotBot
      • Hexapod TrotBot
      • TrotBot
      • TrotBot, Ver 3
      • Mindstorms TrotBot, Ver 3
      • Wooden TrotBots by Automata Korea Design
      • 3D Printed TrotBot by Scott Anderson
      • Large-Scale TrotBot
    • Strider Builds >
      • Strider Linkage Plans
      • Strider Ver 3's Legs
      • Strider Ver 3's Frame
      • Mindstorms Strider Ver 3 Mod
      • Strider
      • Strider's Legs Simplified (ver 2's)
      • RC Strider
    • Mechanical Spider >
      • Klann's Linkage Plans
      • Klann Mechanical Spider - Climbing Mod
      • Klann's Spider, EV3 Long Legs
      • Klann High-Step Mod
      • Klann's Spider, Ver 2
      • Mindstorms Klann
    • Strandbeest
    • LEGO Spot Micro
    • Linkage Warm Ups >
      • Lever Paradox
      • LEGO Biters
      • LEGO Punchers (4 bar linkage warm-up)
      • LEGO Hopping Robot
    • Hiro Labo
    • Whegs (wheel-legs)
  • Customize
    • 4 Bar Linkage Optimizer
    • Strider Linkage Optimizer
    • Klann Linkage Optimizer
    • Strandbeest Optimizer for LEGO
    • TrotBot Optimizer
    • 4 Bar Walking Linkage
    • 6 Bar Walking Linkage
  • Linkage Simulation
    • Python Linkage Simulator
    • Scratch Linkage Simulator
  • Blog