A multifunctional 4 legged walking machine that is being developed in the Robotics Research Centre (NTU) is described. The major factors influencing the design requirements include minimisation of the weight of the machine and maximisation of workspace of the legs. The designed walking machine can adopt a variety of configurations, such as insect, mammalian, reptile or human. The device is invertable (i.e. can turn over). It can use its legs as manipulators, hence it can perform basic pick-and-place functions. A control system was built using the QNX real-time operating system platform. The software was designed using the client-server approach.