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Chalmers University of Technology bachelor’s students built a walking robot inspired by TARS, the obelisk-like machine in Interstellar. Its outer blocks lift and rotate on crank shafts, creating a tripod-like gait. The prototype could walk, but without its simulated stability controller it remained wobbly.
What the students set out to build
The project, reported by Make on May 31, 2018, was a bachelor project at Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg, Sweden. The students aimed to reproduce TARS’s distinctive walking motion in a physical model. They did not attempt to recreate the fictional robot’s transforming body or conversational abilities.
How the walking mechanism works
The robot’s outer blocks connect to inner blocks through a crank shaft. As the shaft turns, it both lifts and rotates the outer blocks, producing the motion needed for the tripod-like gait. The team modeled the mechanism in SimMechanics before constructing the robot.
In a project-team statement reproduced by Make, the students explained that the crank shaft could “both lift the block and rotate them.” Their account describes the core mechanical idea: the blocks do not simply swing on a hinge; the crank combines lifting and rotation to make the walking cycle.
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Motors, fabrication and control
DC motors and precise mechanical alignment
The prototype used DC motors. One of the most demanding fabrication tasks was making the ball-bearing mount for the crank shaft. The mount needed to be accurate, so the team turned an aluminum cylinder on a lathe with assistance. That detail points to a practical challenge in reproducing the mechanism: the crank and its bearing support must be aligned precisely enough for the moving blocks to follow their intended path.
A walking prototype without feedback stabilization
The students simulated a stability feedback controller in Simulink but did not implement it on the robot. As a result, the prototype was “a bit wobbly,” though it could still walk without a control system. The distinction matters: the project demonstrated a working gait, not a finished system with active balance correction.
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What the students would change
The project team identified two upgrades: replace the DC motors with stepper motors for more precise position control, and implement the feedback controller to improve walking performance. Those were proposed improvements, not features reported as completed in the prototype.
- Actuation: DC motors were used; stepper motors were proposed for more precise motor positioning.
- Control: The robot walked without implemented feedback stabilization; the team wanted to add the controller simulated in Simulink.
- Mechanical precision: The crank-shaft bearing mount was the toughest construction task because it required exact fabrication.
- Fabrication: The mount involved lathe work on an aluminum cylinder, with assistance.
Can you build a walking robot like TARS?
The project shows a workable route to a small walking model: design the crank-and-block motion, simulate the mechanism, build accurately aligned supports, and then tune the motor control. It does not provide enough published dimensions, motor specifications, or build instructions to reproduce the Chalmers prototype exactly. A new build would therefore need its own mechanical design and component sizing rather than a direct parts-for-parts copy.
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For a reproduction or redesign, the most useful comparison points are motor type, whether walking is open-loop or feedback-stabilized, crank and bearing alignment, and the amount of custom fabrication. A simpler open-loop build may demonstrate the gait, while improving steadiness would require implementing and tuning control beyond the mechanism alone.
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