Mochibot’s 32 legs can extend to a length of about 39 inches or retract until it’s just about 10 inches long. To move in one direction, the bot simply retracts the legs currently touching the ground on that side of itself while extending the legs behind it. Gravity takes over, and the bot rolls in the desired direction. A big advantage over a tensegrity robot is that it can move smoothly and continuously in any direction you like by altering its shape. This gives it an advantage over wheeled exploration robots as well, since all directions can be optimal for movement, rather than just forward and backward. The designers also suggest that Mochibot is better at dealing with deformable terrain like sand or loose rock, because its method of rolling locomotion is much less traction dependent. And if something does go wrong with one of the legs, well, you’ve got 31 others backing you up, so no big deal. In order it’s highly mobile, very redundant.