When the robots rise up against us, there may be no choice but to go hexapod ourselves. And that six-legged all-terrain machine of the future may already be taking shape in the form of the Mantis Walking Machine, a creation from Matt Denton and his company Micromagic Systems.
This may seem a bit familiar to you if you remember Stompy, a Kickstarter project for a ridable hexapod, that reached it’s funding goal and is currently being built in Massachusetts. Apparently, a hexapod you can ride is just too good an idea for only one to be created. Mantis is Stompy’s British cousin and has been in development since the original idea hit in 2007. In 2009, the company secured private funding, and made a successful public test drive in summer of 2012.
Mantis measures 2.8 meters tall (9.2 feet) tall, weighs 2 tons and is powered by a Perkins 2.2 Turbo diesel engine. It’s available for hire, if you have a job that only a giant hexapod can handle. You can see many more videos and photos on the Mantis Walking Machine’s Facebook page, or get all the technical specifications at the Mantis website.
This is definitely a machine you want to have on your side when the going gets tough!
