Hasta La Ideas

Carpentopod is a walking coffee table, designed and built by Netherlands-based game developer Giliam de Carpentier. Inspired to improve upon Theo Jansen’s Strandbeests, Carpentier wrote software to generate leg linkage mechanisms, then have them virtually compete against each other. Through evolution, the end result was a leg design optimized for smoothness of gait, walking speed and material usage.

That was back in 2008. In the years since, Carpentier has picked up physical building skills as well as a CNC machine. He decided to combine his interests and create a practical piece of furniture that could walk.

The resultant twelve-legged design is made from laminated bamboo plywood, steel shafts, ball bearings and two aluminum crankshafts. The motive force is provided by two brushless motors designed to drive automated curtains. An Arduino board ties everything together, and the table is driven remotely by joystick.

After the project went live on his website this month, people starting asking Carpentier if they could purchase his linkages. Rather than produce them himself, he’s made their design open-source:

Here it is in action:

It moves a lot smoother than I’d thought it would!