The Incredible 'Mantis' Robotic Walking Machine Sets World Record for 'Largest Rideable Hexapod Robot'

Animatronics artist Matt Denton (previously), one of the creators and operators of the Star Wars droid BB-8, was awarded the Guinness World Record for the “Largest Rideable Hexapod Robot”. This honor was bestowed upon Denton for his incredible “Mantis”, a giant robotic walking machine that creeps along like a slow-moving spider.

Watching Star Wars as a seven-year-old has inspired a British engineer to create a two-tonne robot that has walked into the record books. Matt Denton, from Hampshire (UK) has now built the Largest rideable hexapod robot… The largest rideable hexapod robot (six-legged vehicle) is called Mantis. The hexapod, which can be driven from inside its cockpit or operated remotely by wifi, weighs 1.9 tonnes (4,188 lb) and is powered by a 2.2-litre Perkins turbo diesel engine. It boasts 18 degrees of freedom via two three-axis joysticks and 28 buttons, and has a Linux PC as its “brain”. It has a top speed of just over 1 km/hr (0.6 mph).

People often ask why the Mantis is so slow…? To achieve the speed in this timelapse footage, Mantis would require an average of 200 kilowatts of power with peaks of 270 kilowatts!! The hydraulic flow rate would be peaking at about 1000 litres per minute