The invention provides an eight-legged robot with bionic rigid-flexible coupling legs and a control method. The search and rescue robot comprises a machine frame, a machine shell, the rigid-flexible coupling legs, a control processing module, a sensing unit, a wireless transmission module, a motor driving module and a power module, eight rigid-flexible coupling legs with a same structure are arranged, a first left leg, a second left leg, a third left leg and a fourth left leg are installed on the left side of the machine frame, and a first right leg, a second right leg, a third right leg and a fourth right leg are installed on the right side of the machine frame and each comprises a rigid segment, a joint shaft, a foot, a torsion spring, a linear driver, a connecting piece and a spring steel sheet. The control method comprises a step length control method, a step frequency control method, a height control method, a rack and rigid-flexible coupling leg coordination control method, a stable climbing gait control method and a tunnel passing gait control method. According to the eight-legged robot, the rigid segments and the flexible spring steel sheets are combined, and the eight-legged robot has the advantages of being compact in structure, light, self-adaptive, flexible and the like and can be used for tasks such as search and rescue and detection.