The first contribution towards this end is the design and construction of a hexapedal
robot, RHex. The experimental results we present establish RHex as the first power
autonomous robot to achieve speeds exceeding one body length per second over terrain
approaching the complexity and diversity of the natural landscape. The combination
of simple open-loop control algorithms and RHex’s morphology exploits mechanical
feedback to yield surprising energetic performance and robustness. Furthermore, the
versatility of the design becomes evident in additional behaviors that we present,
including turning and dynamical back-flips.