The Official Stiquito Homepage Answers, "What is Stiquito?"

Stiquito is a small, simple, and inexpensive six-legged robot that has been used as a research platform and to teach science in primary, secondary, and high school curricula.

  What is Stiquito.  I mean, really?

Stiquito is a small, inexpensive hexapod (i.e., six-legged) robot.  Universities, high schools, and hobbyists have used it since 1992.  Stiquito is unique not only because it is so inexpensive but also because its applications are almost limitless.  The propulsion in these robots is nitinol, an alloy actuator wire that expands and contracts, roughly emulating the operation of a muscle. The application of heat causes a crystalline structure change in the wire. Nitinol contracts when heated and returns to its original size and shape when cooled.

Stiquito was developed by Jonathan Mills of Indiana University as an inexpensive vehicle for his research.  He soon found its applications extended to educational uses.  It has been used to introduce students to the concepts of analog electronics, digital electronics, computer control, and robotics.  It has also been used for advanced topics such as subsumption architectures, artificial intelligence, and advanced computer architecture.

The IEEE Computer Society Press has published three books, Stiquito:  Advanced Experiments with a Simple and Inexpensive Robot, Stiquito for Beginners:  An Introduction to Robotics, and Stiquito Controlled!  Making a Truly Autonomous Robot.  These books contain instructions for building the Stiquito robot, instructions for designing and building control circuits, and examples of student projects that use Stiquito.  Most importantly, the books contain all the supplies needed to build the robot.  Only a few tools are needed to assemble a complete Stiquito.

• Now available - the start of a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) file.
• View a presentation on Stiquito and Engineering Education given by James M. Conrad (200k pdf file)

The Stiquito Books:

The first book on the Stiquito robot was first available in December 1997. This book contains a Stiquito robot kit. Buy the book from the Stiquito.com site. Book Description Outline: Stiquito(tm): Advanced Experiments with a Simple and Inexpensive Robot. This is the author's description and table of contents for the book. Link to IEEE Computer Society Press Publications Homepage. This is the "official" description of the book. It has the table of contents and several example chapters.

A second book is now available (first available in January 2000). This book also contains a Stiquito robot kit: Buy the book from the Stiquito.com site. Book Outline: Stiquito(tm) for Beginners: An Introduction to Robotics . This book is more introductory than the first, and is meant for high school students and college freshmen. This is the author's description and table of contents for the book. Link to IEEE Computer Society Press Publications Homepage. This is the "official" description of the second book. It has the table of contents and several example chapters.

A third book is now available (first available in February 2005). This book also contains a Stiquito robot kit with the Microcontroller board: Buy the book from the Stiquito.com site.

Author Links:

• Information on James M. Conrad, Stiquito book author
• Information on Jonathan W. Mills, Stiquito book author and inventor of Stiquito

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