Q8botOne Robot Dog: A Palm-Sized Open ESP32-C3 Quadruped

Q8botOne is the kind of maker project that makes you want to clear space on the desk. Launched on Crowd Supply by ZeroWire Robotics, it is a palm-sized, open-source quadruped robot dog built around an Espressif ESP32-C3 microcontroller and eight smart servo actuators, and it is small enough to trot across your keyboard. CNX Software covered the campaign on October 8, 2026, and the full hardware design is already public.

• Brain: ESP32-C3-MINI-1-N4 module with a 32-bit RISC-V core up to 160MHz, 400KB SRAM, 4MB flash, Wi-Fi 4 and Bluetooth LE 5.0.
• Motion: eight ROBOTIS DYNAMIXEL XL330-M077-T smart actuators on a single shared serial bus.
• Size: 120 x 70 x 70mm and roughly 221 to 250g depending on sensors.
• Price: $199 kit (actuators sold separately) or $599 assembled, with free worldwide shipping and deliveries expected from late March 2027.

What Makes the Q8botOne Design Clever?

The neatest trick is structural. The main printed circuit board doubles as the robot's chassis, so the electronics are the spine and there is almost no internal wiring to fuss with. Frames and leg linkages are MJF-printed nylon PA12 with ball-bearing joints, which keeps the whole quadruped light and stiff.

Power comes from two 14500 lithium-ion cells managed by a BQ25887 two-cell charger. A TPS543A26 step-down converter supplies the actuators at 6V with up to 16A of headroom, while a separate 5V converter feeds the microcontroller, sensors and optional camera. An INA228 power monitor, an MPU-6050 six-axis IMU and an ESP32 camera module are available as optional extras.

How Do You Control the Q8botOne?

A second ESP32-C3 board paired with a mini I2C gamepad acts as the handheld remote, talking to the robot over Espressif's low-latency ESP-NOW protocol. That same board can plug into a computer as a wireless dongle, so you can also drive the robot from a desktop GUI, an Xbox controller or your own code through an API.

The firmware running on the ESP32-C3 and the Python control software are open source, and according to CNX Software the Altium schematics, Gerber files, bill of materials and 3D CAD files are published on GitHub. For anyone learning gait control, inverse kinematics or reinforcement learning on real hardware, that openness is the real feature.

How Does It Compare With Other ESP32 Robot Dogs?

The ESP32 has become a favorite brain for small legged robots. Last month we looked at the Petoi Quaddle $99 ESP32 robot dog, which targets classrooms and physical-AI experiments at a lower price. Q8botOne aims higher on hardware: DYNAMIXEL smart actuators report position and load over their bus, which gives more precise control than hobby servos, and the assembled version arrives ready to walk.

Should You Back It?

The campaign had a $10,000 funding goal when we checked, so this is still an early-stage crowdfunding project rather than a shipping product. As with any crowdfunding campaign, delivery dates can move. For makers who want an open, hackable legged robot that fits in one hand, though, Q8botOne is one of the most polished designs to appear this year. Keep exploring small-board builds in our mini computers section.

Sources: CNX Software — Q8botOne palm-sized open-source quadruped robot with ESP32-C3 and DYNAMIXEL smart actuators — October 8, 2026; Crowd Supply — Q8botOne by ZeroWire Robotics — campaign launched October 6, 2026.