Legged robots

MechDog

A palm-sized ESP32 robot dog with eight coreless servos, coded in Scratch, Python or Arduino.

Arduino
micro:bit
ESP32
Suggested for primary
Suggested for secondary

MechDog is a palm-sized robot dog built around an ESP32 controller and eight high-speed coreless servos on metal linkage legs. Inverse kinematics and a built-in IMU let it walk, turn and balance while adjusting its height, pitch and roll, and a glowing ultrasonic sensor measures distance and avoids obstacles. It can be programmed in Scratch, Python or Arduino. The Advanced Kit adds an ESP32-S3 vision module, an AI voice interaction module and sensor modules; the Ultimate Kit adds micro:bit support and building-block parts; and the MechDog Pro Developer Kit adds a 3DOF metal robot arm.

Zeta42 is an authorised Hiwonder partner in the Middle East.

Configurations

Choose how it ships.

Model: Standard Kit · Advanced Kit · Ultimate Kit · MechDog Pro Developer Kit

What it does

Built for.

Eight coreless servos
Metal linkage legs and eight high-performance coreless servos give agile, precise movement, and MechDog adjusts its direction, height, pitch and roll while it walks.
Balance and control
A built-in IMU tracks its posture for self-balancing. The app includes 16 preset actions, and the PC software sets the end coordinates of each leg to design new ones.
Vision and voice (Advanced Kit and up)
The ESP32-S3 vision module streams live video over Wi-Fi and handles colour recognition and tracking, face recognition and line following. The AI voice interaction module takes spoken commands, with a customisable wake word, and gives a spoken alert when the ultrasonic sensor finds an obstacle.
Sensors and IoT (Advanced Kit and up)
Its expansion ports take touch, light, dot matrix and MP3 modules for further projects. Over Wi-Fi, the app shows face, colour and distance alerts and sets the colour of the ultrasonic sensor's lights.
micro:bit and building blocks (Ultimate Kit)
With micro:bit, the micro:bit handles sensing and decisions while the ESP32 drives the legs. Building-block parts that work with LEGO blocks turn MechDog into six builds, among them a transport robot, a winged robot and a 2DOF block gripper.
Robot arm (MechDog Pro Developer Kit)
The Pro Developer Kit adds a 3DOF metal robot arm, so MechDog can grip objects and carry them to a target, controlled from the app.

Where it is used

Applications.

Primary and secondary coding lessons in Scratch, Python or Arduino
Teaching legged movement, balance and inverse kinematics
AI vision and voice projects (Advanced Kit and up)
Creative builds with micro:bit and building blocks (Ultimate Kit)

Videos

See it run.

Specifications

The full sheet.

Product size: 214 × 126 × 138 mm (powered on)
Product weight: About 560g
Material: Hard aluminium alloy
DOF: 8DOF
Controller: ESP32 robot controller
Vision module: ESP32-S3 vision module, 320 × 240 camera (Advanced Kit and up)
Servo: HPS-0618SG coreless servos
Power supply: 7.4V 1500mAh 5C lithium battery
Battery life: Up to 60 minutes
Programming: Arduino, Scratch, Python
Software: App + action editing PC software
Control method: PC / app
Standard Kit package size: 35 × 17 × 14 cm
Standard Kit package weight: About 1.3kg