Erle Robotics has launched an Indiegogo campaign for what it claims is the "first smart robotic spider powered by Snappy Ubuntu Core," which is a "transactionally updated Ubuntu for clouds and devices." The six-legged robot weighs just over 2 kilograms (4.4lbs) and has 45 minutes of autonomy, according to the company.

Indiegogo options include a basic kit for about £250 ($400), and an assembled version for around £420 ($640). If the main Indiegogo goal of $50,000 (about £33,000) is exceeded, the stretch goals include a free Android app to replace the simple wireless gamepad that is included with the system ($100,000 pledged), and the addition of a 5-megapixel camera to all models if $150,000 is pledged. Oddly, there doesn't seem to be a stretch goal to add two extra legs.

Carlos Uraga, CEO of the Spanish company Erle Robotics, told Ars in an e-mail about the genesis of the project, which started out as a drone for inspecting pipes: "It was interesting to several companies and communities to see that drones are not just aerial platforms and get to a robot able to walk for specific missions where a copter is not enough." But things soon moved beyond a simple walking robot: "The final result of Erle-Spider is not the initial 'idea' of e.g. a pipes inspection drone, but we also realised the possibilities that this robot could bring if we made it really intelligent."

One manifestation of that intelligence is the ability to write sophisticated apps for the Erle-Spider. As for the Erle-Copter, which Ars wrote about back in March, developers can create apps using the open source Robot Operating System (ROS), and distribute/sell them through Erle Robotics' apps store. Initially, Erle Robotics will supply the Spider with ROS Indigo, but according to the FAQ: "there'll be ROS 2 packages for those that dare to try it out. Once ROS 2 becomes stable, our official releases will be based on ROS 2."

The system is designed to be as open as possible. The Indiegogo page says that "sources, components and designs will be opened under a BSD license (unless specified or enforced by others)." Powering the system is a 900MHz quad-core ARM Cortex-A7 CPU with 1 GB of RAM; the Erle-Spider comes with a gravity sensor, gyroscope, digital compass, pressure sensor, and temperature sensor.

Connectivity is a key aspect, as Uraga explains: "This robot provides connectivity through Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, 3G and 4G networks, etc. then the people can control it through their mobile phones, joysticks, laptops, tablets, etc. and this can even act as a hot spot for Wi-Fi. For example, five spiders spread along a university can provide Wi-Fi to the whole university while students get into their brains and research in robotics, or some others can see real time streaming video through the spider eyes (camera)." The only downside of this novel approach is that arachnophobes may start freaking out at the sight of large metal spiders wandering around the campus, of course.