How To: Build a Tiny Vibrating Bug Robot

This little robot is really easy and fast to make. You only need a few parts. Hit the jump to see the full tutorial.

Here you can see all the parts you will need for this project.

• 3 small paper clips
• 1 piece of double-sided foam tape
• 1 pager motor with weight attached
• 1 coil cell battery holder
• 1 3V coin cell

After gathering the parts, We need to make the legs of the robot. First, straighten the 3 paper clips. They don’t have to be perfect, just straight-ish.

Next we need to bend each paper clip in the middle. This helps the legs stay at the correct angle later. Two of the paper clips can be the same size bend (about 7mm in the middle) and one must be slightly smaller (about 5mm in the middle).

Next, bend the long parts of the paper clips outward. The paper clip we bent to 5mm is on the bottom in this picture.

Now bend the paperclip we bent to 5mm into the shape shown. This makes the front legs of the robot.

If you want, you can make the bend go up, then back down as shown here. This will add to the bug look and make it easier to make all the legs even later.

Now bend the second paper clip up to form the legs.

Again, a “kick” in the bend might make it looks more buggy.

Now bend the last set of legs. It helps of you angle them a bit as shown below.

Now place the legs on one of the stick sides of the foam tape as shown here. We’ll adjust the lengths and angles a bit more later so for now, approximate placing is ok.

Now stick this to the bottom of the coin cell holder, making sure not to cover the solder terminals. On my holder, there were little plastic tabs getting in the way, so I cut them off to make the tape lie more flat.

Now solder the motor to the battery holder terminals.

Now solder the motor to the battery holder terminals.

Here you can see the back and side profiles of the little guy.

Now here is one of the most important steps! You have to adjust the legs. The Stiquito robot is similar to this leg layout. Having built TONS of Stiquito kits, I know what to do here. The legs must be leveled out. Do this by standing it on the table and cutting all the legs to be even. Try not to cut too much.

Once all the legs are even, you need to bend the “feet” slightly backward so the angle is about 120 degrees. This will cause the vibration of the motor to propel the robot forward. You can see what I mean here:

Once this is done, you are ready to go. Play with the leg design a bit to see if any adjustments bring out different behaviors. You might have to tweak it a bit to get it to go straight. In my experience, it will always turn more in the direction the motor weight is spinning.

A final addition of tiny googly eyes makes this robot complete. Have fun and enjoy!