My walking machine in the middle of construction

This is a walker that I'm working on at the moment that is based on Theo Jansen's walking mechanism (If you dont know who Theo Jansen is you should have a look at some videos of his work, he creates huge walking machines powered by the wind). In this video only one pair of legs is motorized, eventually it will have two gearboxes powering two pairs of legs. I'm doing this because I'm aiming to give it the ability to turn like most two wheeled robots and forklifts (left motor on+right motor off=turning to the right and left motor off+right motor on=turning to the left). It's not going to have a very complicated controller at all, it will simply have four wires coming out the back (two for each motor) and at the controllers end two DP3T switches that will be used as joysticks reversing the polarity to the motors which will then reverse the direction of the legs.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• theo
• jansen
• walking
• mechanism
• machine
• robot
• mechanics
• mechanical
• construct
• construction
• make
• build
• diy
• electronics
• control
• wires
• switch
• solder
• walker
• walk
• motor
• gearbox
• 12v
• power
• art
• sculpture
• modern
• cool
• awesome
• amazing

[ecoartist92]

I think you are being very harsh to yourself, obviously its hard to guess if it would work with 4 legs but I thought 2 legs were turning so well, how did you managed to cut aluminium that smooth? is it strong enough to carry the weight?

[MarshFacev2]

@ecoartist92

The aluminum parts come in long sections and are cut to length. Their sections depend on their cross sectional shape such as box section, flat bar, tubing, rod etc. All I do with something like this is cut them to length and drill any holes needed. So the smooth faces you're talking about is how it comes from the factory. The aluminium supports the weight fine, I just needed more legs etc.

[ecoartist92]

Amazing walking machine, did you use mdf for the legs? Looks like aluminium but I guess could be painted???

[MarshFacev2]

@ecoartist92

The silver looking parts are alluminium and the white parts are painted MDF. You may notice how old this video is compared to my other robots and I still haven't put up a finished video of it. I was never happy with how this turned out, it looks nice but it never walked efficiently enough for me (especially turning). I disliked this so much that I never even wired up a controller for it, it still sits in my room with the temorary remote I made for it held together with tape.

[H8H8er]

ah man! That's one hell of a massager if you put some padding on the sharp ends. Put a blond wing on it then you got yourself a product.

[Th3dutch]

Theo Janssen is awsome the man with the pvc.

The structure of your walking mechanism also looks like one of his walking beach animals nice job.

[mecatronix87]

hola!! woaaww!!! me podrias mandar tu diseño!!!  saludos

[tearlejc1]

WOW!!!!!! Thats AMMMMAAAAAAZAING!!!! You are SOO clever - wow, your dad must have been a great influence on you !