I'm chasing one of a hundred free crab robots, and the contest rules decided the shape of the work
KingKong Robotics open-sourced Jumper, a 22-DoF crab robot, and with it a raffle: the BE UNLIMITED Crab Robot Challenge runs 2026-09-30 through 2026-11-30, and they pick 100 outstanding open-source projects to receive an actual Jumper. Round 1 entries close October 30, there are three to four selection rounds, and the page says enter earlier for more chances to win. The hardware spec is what…
KingKong Robotics released the Jumper, a 22-DoF crab robot, and opened a raffle called the BE UNLIMITED Crab Robot Challenge. This contest invites 100 outstanding open-source projects to receive an actual Jumper from September 30, 2026, to November 30, 2026. The hardware specifications make the robot interesting for simulation rather than printing: 400 by 400 by 200 mm, weighing 1.8 kg, featuring 22 tactile servos, a top speed of half a metre per second, a jump height of at least 400 mm, a grasp load of 1 kg, and about two hours of battery life.
The simulated robot is 13 cm tall, leading to challenges in scaling. Entries are videos longer than 15 seconds posted on X or YouTube, using the hashtags #Jumper, #CrabRobot, and #OpenSourceRobot, and mentioning the official account. Judging is based on 60% audience response and 40% expert review, evaluating appearance, playfulness, and usefulness.
The contest focuses on concept and framing rather than technical excellence, and originality is enforced with plagiarism disqualified. Entrants must create original music due to licensing restrictions. The pipeline involves cloning a toolkit and using trained policies for motion, with checkpoints at various model stages. Rendering on macOS requires the glfw backend, and MuJoCo 3.15 on arm64 builds inverts geom_rgba.
The scene pool includes environments like beach, football, ice, and swing, with props at diorama scale to accommodate the robot's size. The rotation of scenes and palettes plays a crucial role in gaining attention, with one popular entry featuring a crab-versus-crab battle game on a dim-sum table. The contest stands with eleven behaviors, ten scenes, six palettes, four cameras, and verified rotation, with daily posts and the potential prize being a significant aspect.
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