[Izzy Swan] is a popular wood working YouTuber who recently fell in love with [Theo Jansen’s] kinetic art — the Strandbeest. Naturally, he had to make his own; but with his own flare of course.
If’ you’re not familiar, [Theo Jansen’s] Strandbeest is a walking kinetic sculpture, powered by wind. It’s inspired a Hamster Ball powered Strandbeest, some nice 3D printed ones, and even a paper craft version! Mechanically, it’s quite a marvel — his TED talk about them is fantastic.
When [Izzy] saw all those legs moving, he knew he had to recreate it — so he came up with this two legged version that pushes him around — kind of like a tricycle, but the back wheels are… legs? It’s an oddity for sure, but an impressive feat nonetheless. Not to mention he’s powering the whole thing using a little cordless drill…
Despite it looking like machined aluminum, it is in fact made of wood, though it does feature a metal gearbox using worm gears to transfer torque from the drill. We want to see a Segway version of this… we might have to make use of the laser cutter in the office…
[Thanks for the awesome tip Uminded!]
drill spins, wheel spins… why use other mechanics? stupid, imho
This is mechanical art. It was created because it looks funny and just for fun. If he used a drill to power ordinary wheels, what would be the “hack”?
I would love to know anyone could work out such a system. Amazing device.
Welcome to hackaday. You’re new here aren’t you.
You’re wrong! Show us your projects……
Calling people stupid is an interesting form of humility,
I’m skeptical that driving the wheels with the drill would be able to move it as fast as the legs do. The guy riding the thing isn’t a light man.
he is standing over the weel, the power from the drill is mowing the thing forwards, not upwards
“Segway” was done 7 years ago at the University of Louisiana
https://youtu.be/JCPlczI3k-c
Humma Kavula!
+1 for the Hitchhikers reference. :)
I thought he was just swearing…
This is a lot faster moving than I expected, I wonder what the run time is on the drill battery.
the playing speed of the video is never at 100% when you see tha walking mechanism…
actually it’s pretty slow
He doesn’t say, but he does say he gets about a mile (or km?) out of it. So, at walking speed of, what, 2 miles an hour? Apparently about 30 minutes.
Looks like the hind legs of a cow!
– Mom, look! A Centaurus is walking on our street!
– Yeah, right! That’s exactly what you said last week about Aliens. Now get inside and finish your homework!
I see a perfect design for a Centaur or dinosaur art piece. Very cool!
run it in reverse and you’ve got a 2015 Chariot
this may be a new form of electric bike should electric bikes become banned or the laws legalizing them expire due to a future president
Where is the flare? You said a flare! I watched the whole video. Not a single flare. No chaff. No countermeasures of any sort. What sort of fun is that? (Now, maybe the countermeasures from something that walks like a disabled cow would be in the form of patties…)
HaD editors have a flair for malapropisms.
I wonder if there’s any applications where Strandbeest legs work better than wheels. I’m not trying to say they’re pointless like some people are, I just wonder if they’re more practical for some circumstances.
Hmm it looks like their ‘thing’ is low power requirement as they don’t actually lift anything besides the legs, they seem like they can be more stable at low speeds, they seems to be reasonably maneuverable in small spaces (haven’t seen a wheeled segway do a full turn on the spot, might be wrong).
Maybe something like a heavy cargo crawler for manufacturing, like a mobile engine hoist? Something that can deftly maneuver large loads without jerk or slop. I get that it is probably usually done with castors or something but in this case you can clear cables and crap on the ground.
Everything has a strengths and weaknesses, there’s bound to be applications for it.
As cool as the Strandbeest mechanism is, I think Mechanum/omni wheels have the advantage for that – cables & crap are likely to be Murphy’d into the mechanism of the legs. I haven’t seen any effort to instrument the “toes” on the feet though…think of a system that wouldn’t step on something it wasn’t supposed to.
Suppose you did sensor-ify the toes. What would you do with that information? You have no decisions to make, no degrees of freedom to change the trajectory of that foot.
I don’t think Theo Jansen legs in particular are very practical – their trajectory is optimised for flatness at the bottom, and as a result their obstacle clearing ability is quite poor.
However, if you look at the stuff Boston Dynamics have been working on, more sophisticated legs with multiple degrees of freedom are becoming more and more practical for places where wheels are not.
Why does everything have to have applications? I love it for the fun of watching it. You’re ALL right! Good day. I said “good day”!
:)
Very cool looking machine! But it’s NOT a walking machine, it supports itself on wheels. The Cajun Crawler from the link above would be an example of a true walking machine.
Sorry – but it both walks and rolls.. Definitely can count as a walking machine.
So, now – dont you have some back-hairs to split?
Someone needs to make a mechanical horse & buggy for halloween/steampunk event.
I bet he tells his wife “i am going for a walk!”
Does all the effort, makes and designs a clever mechanism, then makes the steering handlebars 5 inches too low..
Anyway I wonder who will make an amusing artsy GIF from this eventually. I hope someone with talent comes through.
It looks like a horses ass, no really! It seems to me that he put the cart before the horse in this case, he should really build a set of legs pulling a wagon of some sort.
Looks interesting, but it is not a “scooter which walks with legs”. Almost the whole structure is on the wheels, and the legs are just pushing it horizontally.