[Jeremy] may have given up on his big hexapod project, but that doesn’t mean he’s out of the world of legged robots just yet. He’s embarked on another project, much more elegant and beautiful than a simple hexapod. This time, he’s building a Strandbeest, the same machine designed by walking machine extraordinaire [Theo Jansen].
Coming up with the correct lengths and joints of a Strandbeest leg linkage isn’t something you can just pull out of your head, so after [Jeremy] found the inspiration for his new project he dug into the related literature on Strandbeest legs. He found the work of [Dominique Studer] and set to work making his own mechanical legs.
Right now, [Jeremy] has a prototype of the Strandbeest leg linkage made out of wood. It still needs a little bit of work, but soon enough there will be a PVC pipe Mountainbeest trolling the backwoods near [Jeremy]’s house.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0T-Eg2_ofg8&w=520]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c37VXSlFh0A&w=520]
That would be a ‘bergbeest’, to stay in the appropriate Dutch-based terminology. ;) That looks very cool!
Indeed!
Nice article! Thanks for the write-up, Brian!
Very cool Shaft.
Lol, what up CBore! Wondered if you would see this one!
What’s missing with these is the ability to alter leg length and stride to handle rough terrain and making turns. A windblown crawler that moves smoothly in a straight line on a flat beach is neat. A windblown crawler that can also walk over obstacles and tack upwind would be amazing.
I don’t understand what is so difficult here. Theo Jansen (the original designer of the StrandBeest) has posted the way he came up with the most efficient leg dimensions, and gives a sketch of what those dimensions are.
http://www.strandbeest.com/beests_leg.php
(Dimensions corresponding to each link is at bottom right of page)
Am I missing something? These are a dime a dozen.
Your central pivot mechanism needs to be elevated to produce a legged motion parallel to the ground.