03/03/2025 Update: Q8bot is now a research project at the UCLA Robotics and Mechanisms Lab (RoMeLa). The open-source nature of this project remains unchanged. We are working on an improved version of this platform and will potentially release it under a different name. Stay tuned!
Q8bot was recently featured in a tour video by UnrealScience, a famous Korean science Youtube channel.
This video demonstrates the latest capabilities of the robot, made possibly by ongoing improvements in software control and mechanical design.
See the detailed robot building process on YouTube!
Q8bot is lucky to be featured in a number of blog posts:
- Hackaday: https://hackaday.com/2024/10/29/little-quadruped-has-pcb-spine-and-no-wiring/#comments
- Hackster.io: https://www.hackster.io/news/a-step-up-for-diy-robotics-8b04a2320861?f=1
- Interesting Engineering: https://interestingengineering.com/innovation/palm-sized-quadruped-robot-redefines-design
- Techblog: https://www.techeblog.com/spot-robot-dog-q8bot/
- Design: https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.01149
- Control & Data Acquisition: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/11078123/
Q8bot is a miniature quadruped robot with the size and weight comparable to a modern smartphone. This robot is capable of dynamic movements like walking, trotting, bounding, jumping, and more. It also has NO WIRES AND CABLES - everything is directly plugged into the center PCB, greatly reducing complexity, weight, and cost. The current Bill of Materials (BOM), without optimization, starts below $300.
Q8bot is 100% open source: In this repository, you will find everything you need - STEP, STL, Gerber, Schematics, bill of materials (BOM), instructions, and more - to build your own version.
You can now ordered the fully-assembled PCB via PCBWay! This project page contains all of the assembly-related files (BOM, centroid, etc.) and simplifies the ordering process.
I’m working on turning Q8bot into a purchasable kit, though I’m not sure when or if it will happen. In the meantime, I encourage you to build your own Q8bot! This palm-sized quadruped is perfect for robotics education, swarm robotics research, or simply as a fun engineering project. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out and I will try my best to help.
Personal: yufeng.wu0902@gmail.com
School: ericyufengwu@ucla.edu
The building instructions have moved to a dedicated folder: