Q8botOne is an adorable four-legged robot built for hobbyists, makers, educators, and researchers. It packs programmable actuators into a compact, palm-sized footprint, enabling dynamic behaviors in a robot small enough to navigate around your desk.

In fall 2024, we first released Q8bot as an open-source project on GitHub and received strong interest from the community. In 2025, we published multiple academic papers highlighting the robot’s design and architecture. After several additional hardware revisions, Q8botOne is now a production-ready version developed for broader use, launching soon on Crowd Supply.

Elegant by Design

The entire robot is constructed with no wires and cables, as every component is directly integrated onto a central printed circuit board. This approach improves electrical reliability, reduces size and weight, and simplifies servicing for the robot, making it well suited as an open hardware platform.

Original Q8botOne prototype (left), updated prototype (right)

Q8botOne does not attempt to mimic the appearance of an animal in nature. Its design is intentionally simple, with a rectangular body and parallel-linkage legs. We have found that this abstract form makes the robot feel approachable and engaging, especially for students and younger users. The simple body design also encourages customization, making it easy for users to personalize the robot and add their own flair.

Q8botOne can serve multiple roles. As a compact desktop robot, it can walk, trot, jump, and interact out of the box using a remote controller. For educators, it is a tangible and hands-on way to get students excited to learn robotics fundamentals. For researchers and advanced users, Q8botOne is fully customizable from hardware to firmware, making it suitable for additional development.

Features & Specifications

Every Q8botOne will include a fully-assembled robot and a small custom controller dongle, pre-paired to work with the robot with minimal setup. Connecting the dongle to a computer enables additional control options and further customization.

Robot

• Minimal, robust leg mechanisms built with 3D-printed (MJF) linkages and ball-bearing joints
• 8 x DYNAMIXEL XL-series programmable smart actuators
• ESP32-C3-MINI-N4 microcontroller
• Rechargeable Li-ion battery with integrated protection electronics
• Qwiic-compatible connector for adding sensors (Adafruit, Sparkfun, and others)
• UART interface for co-processors (e.g., Raspberry Pi), with up to 5 V, 3 A power output

Controller

• Pre-paired and works with the robot out of the box
• Integrated joystick and buttons for direct control
• USB Type-C interface for power and connectivity
• Software tools for robot configuration and advanced control

Open Source

Like its predecessor, Q8bot, Q8botOne will be fully open-source. The mechanical design is developed in Onshape, a browser-based CAD platform that is freely accessible. The rest of the hardware and software files will be hosted under the ZeroWireRobotics GitHub organization. After the end of the campaign, they will be made available to the public.

While the Q8botOne design is still being finalized, the existing Q8bot GitHub repository provides a good reference for the types of files that will be released.

Interested in This Project?

You can sign up at the top of this page to be notified when the campaign launches and to receive other updates. We only send out relevant content, and you can unsubscribe at any time.