Walk, walk you sand creature, walk

[Foster]

So they don't fit into the FIRST min cubic size area and don't use Andy Mark transmissions, but they are cool beach walkers. With 2013 shaping up to be a water game (ohhhh felt the CP point drop on that), will walking robots be the Champs robot of choice? East coast drive, West Coast Drive, will the North coast come up with a Walker?

[pfreivald]

We have a CADded up design for a walking T-shirt launcher based on Theo Jansen's work. We also have the aluminum cut and ready to assemble and weld... if our capital project wouldn't have taken away our (not yet returned) shop space last spring, we'd probably have a toughbox-driven twelve-legger launching T-shirts as we speak!

But yeah, Jansen's machines are awesome.

[JVN]

A few years ago IFI Co-Founder and CTO Bob Mimlitch went through a bit of a Strandbeest phase...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDQN3u62YdY

We're all huge fans of Theo Jansen and his work.

-John

[Kevin_Morris]

Videos and photos Jansen's work should be considered NSFW for engineers. I love walkers (RIP AT:AT for America) and Jansen's are by far my favorite.

Jansen's TEDtalk is extremely interesting and provides some more insight into his creations. He not only talks about how he wants these to roam the beaches and whatnot, but the practical uses for these walkers to lift heavy loads (fast forward to 4:40 of TEDtalk).

The only problem is I'm extremely arachnophobic, and every now and then, those trigger something in my brain . I also can't imagine if you're asleep on the beach and one of those wake you up.