If anyone want to build a hexapod with legs instead of whegs, check out: <a href="http://vorpalrobotics.com/wiki/index.php/Vorpal_The_Hexapod" rel="nofollow">http://vorpalrobotics.com/wiki/index.php/Vorpal_The_Hexapod</a><p>It's 3d printed and the design is fully open, but you can buy a full kit for under $200 if you don't want to buy and print everything yourself.<p>Disclosure: One of my relatives did a lot of the design.
The ability to get over obstacles is very impressive. If you have ever watched a RoboMagellan <a href="http://robogames.net/rules/magellan.php" rel="nofollow">http://robogames.net/rules/magellan.php</a> competition, you will have seen <i>many</i> robots fail to do what MiniRHex can do.<p>The odometry has to suck, though. The rest of your nav stack had better be able to compensate.<p>Overall, very performant. It gives me the itch to go out and build one.
Kinda late on this, but I found something similar recently, that was also inspired by the original RHex:<p><a href="http://robotsquare.com/2013/07/17/zebro-light/" rel="nofollow">http://robotsquare.com/2013/07/17/zebro-light/</a><p>I can't recall where or how I found it (there's a good chance it was mentioned here on HN)...