The inspiration

This project is heavily based around the Bioloid robotic system from Robotis in Seoul, South Korea. I got my Bioloid Premium kit from RoboSavvy in the UK (excellent service by the way). Amongst other models, the Premium Kit can build a robot scorpion - video here. It looks like this:

It's a fun model and for a 18 servo limit (what the kit is supplied with) it's not too bad. However it could be so much better. My main gripes are:

• Only 2 degrees of freedom per leg. This means the feet skid badly when it walks
• Poor walking gait - just an inefficient tripod gait run at a frantic rate
• The pincers are fixed into place - no moving arms
• No remote control except for responding to clapping

The Pointless Robot will expand on this in many ways.