OK-1 Quadruped Robot

Jul 2, 2026·
Ömer Kurkutlu
Ömer Kurkutlu
· 2 min read
projects

Overview

OK-1 is a fully custom-designed quadruped robot developed as an end-to-end robotics platform, covering mechanical design, electronics, embedded systems, software development, simulation, and autonomous control. The project was created as part of OK Dynamics, a robotics startup that I co-founded, with the goal of building an affordable and flexible research platform for legged robotics.

Motivation

Commercial quadruped robots are often expensive and difficult to customize. OK-1 was developed to provide an accessible platform for robotics research, rapid prototyping, and experimentation with autonomous locomotion, perception, and artificial intelligence.

Key Features

  • Fully custom quadruped robot
  • Complete mechanical design
  • Embedded control system
  • ROS and Gazebo simulation
  • Computer vision integration
  • Autonomous locomotion
  • Wireless remote control
  • Modular hardware architecture

Mechanical Design

The entire robot was designed from scratch using SolidWorks, including:

  • Chassis
  • Legs
  • Servo mounting system
  • Electronics enclosure
  • Remote controller
  • Complete CAD assembly

The design emphasizes modularity, lightweight construction, and ease of maintenance.

Electronics

  • Custom power distribution
  • Servo motor control
  • Embedded microcontroller
  • Raspberry Pi integration
  • Wireless communication
  • Battery management

Software Stack

  • C++
  • Python
  • ROS
  • Gazebo
  • OpenCV
  • TensorFlow
  • Embedded C

Research Contributions

The OK-1 platform served as a foundation for exploring:

  • Quadruped locomotion
  • Inverse kinematics
  • Gait generation
  • Robot simulation
  • Autonomous navigation
  • Vision-based perception
  • AI-enabled robotics

Experimental Results

The platform was successfully deployed in both simulation and real-world environments. It was used to validate locomotion algorithms, embedded control systems, and perception pipelines while serving as a versatile platform for robotics research and education.

Future Work

Future developments include:

  • Reinforcement learning for locomotion
  • Vision-language-action models
  • Autonomous outdoor navigation
  • Multi-modal perception
  • Onboard AI acceleration
  • Swarm robotic coordination

Project Status

Status: ✅ Completed Research & Startup Project

Robotics Quadruped Robot Embedded Systems Mechanical Design ROS Gazebo Computer Vision
Ömer Kurkutlu
Authors
Ömer Kurkutlu
PhD Candidate in Electrical and Computer Engineering
I am a PhD Candidate in Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Illinois Chicago. My research focuses on autonomous robotics, vision-based navigation, reinforcement learning, TinyML, embedded AI, and resource-constrained robotic systems.