Before any of you think otherwise, Strider was named after a water strider (Gerris remigis) for his capability to tread very lightly thanks to six wide wheels like the water strider's six legs. Even though I am a huge Tolkien fan Strider was not named after Aragorn.

Our friends in Miami, Starbot, planned a Mars rover competition for students so I decided to build one as a demonstration robot that I could also keep separately from the combat robots. I pondered the design in my head for probably three months with the most thought being given to the suspension system. It would be very important to keep all wheels on the ground for maximum traction but also have a high ground clearance to get over rocks and obstacles. Four wheels is what I usually use for stability but this robot needs to tread lightly so more wheels would be needed to disperse the weight over a greater area. Also, the robot was built within the dimensional limits set forth in the Mars Rover competition; 15" cube or less and 15 pounds or less.

Also, I wanted to build the robot using hand tools that would be found in most garages; drill, miter saw, dremel tool, etc. to show my students that it could be done without the use of expensive machinery (with one exception which will be explained when the build report gets to it). And, without spending a boatload on parts. I paid less than seven dollars for all of the metal used in the construction of the robot. The motors were only $15 each at a local electronics surplus store and the wheels were purchased at local hobby store.

After he was finished he turned out to be capable of pretty amazing feats as you can see in the picture above. So, follow along as I walk you through the build process.