This giant robotic spider creeps on 8 legs and will haunt your nightmares
Published on Jan 31, 2023 at 4:17 PM (UTC+4)
by Kate Bain
Last updated on Jan 31, 2023 at 4:17 PM (UTC+4)
Edited by
Kate Bain
This giant robot is the stuff of nightmares.
It’s a massive, two-tonne machine that walks on eight legs just like a spider.
Called the Mantis, this giant spider has actually walked its way into the book of Guinness World Records for being the largest rideable Hexapod robot.
Yep, that’s right, you can ride it.
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The Mantis was created by a man named Matt Denton at Mantis Hacks from Hampshire in the UK and he built a control center in the head of the spider.
From there, you can sit and control every movement of the giant arachnid.
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Inside the control center you’ll find three-axis joysticks, 28 buttons, and a Linux PC which serves as its brain.
If that’s too daunting, you can also control the robot remotely via wifi.
The robot is powered by a 2.2-liter Perkins turbo diesel engine.
It’s big and scary looking, but you hardly need to run from it as it’s got a top speed of just 1 km/h.
And the purpose of the massive robotic spider?
Well, according to its creator, it doesn’t really have one.
Hacksmith spider
If you thought you were only going to see one giant spider today, you’re sorely mistaken.
There’s two of them.
Yep, this one was built by James Hobson AKA The Hacksmith and it’s just as crazy.
Hobson said he spent over a year and a half building the giant rideable hexapod, which ultimately turned into a year and a half of “failures, breakdowns, and rewrites”.
“It all started when I came across a video of a Princess Auto excavator which was capable of orienting itself by using the bucket to stand up and maneuver. So what stops more legs lifting more bodies, as one giant unit?” he said.
Hobson said he knew the project was ambitious and admitted it was ultimately too difficult.
“I think we have to cut our losses with this project because at this point it’s doing us no returns. There’s no way that we could keep just allocating so much time and so much money to this project,” he said.
Purpose or no purpose, these giant robotic spiders are some of the most creative, epic builds the world has ever seen.
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Kate is Lead Editor, overseeing coverage across automotive, tech, and lifestyle content on the site. She has more than 10 years’ experience as a journalist and news editor, having worked across a range of major publications including News Corp, Daily Mail Australia, and Sky News. Kate holds a Bachelor of Business Management from University of Queensland and a Postgraduate Diploma in Journalism from Queensland University of Technology. She has been with Supercar Blondie since 2020 and played a key role in establishing supercarblondie.com as a leading automotive news destination.
