Strandbeest

[DonRotolo]

For some of the beests, I saw someone pushing or pulling it, and for the one in the second video, it appeared to be powered by compressed air (possibly a tank hidden in the fabric folds at top.

But how are the others powered? I just can't see anything.

I mean, they work by a kind-of crankshaft principle, but what turns the shaft?

Art using science.

Don

[dlavery]

Originally Posted by Don Rotolo

For some of the beests, I saw someone pushing or pulling it, and for the one in the second video, it appeared to be powered by compressed air (possibly a tank hidden in the fabric folds at top.

But how are the others powered? I just can't see anything.

I mean, they work by a kind-of crankshaft principle, but what turns the shaft?

Based on what I have read across several descriptions of the machines, all of them are wind powered. For some of them, it is raw wind power used immediately to turn the crankshaft that drives the walking linkage. Others incorporate a small wind turbine that compresses air that is then stored in 2-liter plastic soda bottles and released later to a set of pistons to turn the crankshaft. The Wired magazine article mentioned that some of the machines use wind energy to generate and store compressed air for up to five days before releasing it in a burst of motion that may only last a few minutes. Then the machine resets and starts the cycle all over again.

-dave

[JaneYoung]

This just simply takes my breath away.

[cooker52]

"The walls between art and engineering only exist only in our minds" Theo Jansen.

Absolutely incredeible.

[JaneYoung]

Originally Posted by cooker52

"The walls between art and engineering only exist only in our minds" Theo Jansen.

Absolutely incredeible.

Well, if you think about it, the mind is often where the walls go up and where the walls can come down -

Nice, Seth.

Wow. I don't think anything has captured my attention as this has in years. These... creatures (I hesitate to call them machines) are so incredible, fluid, and beautiful, that I'm surprised there aren't more of them yet.

Sidenote, it would be neat to see something along these lines in a FRC game...

[dlavery]

Originally Posted by 114ManualLabor

Sidenote, it would be neat to see something along these lines in a FRC game...

Who says we won't?

[Koko Ed]

Originally Posted by dlavery

Who says we won't?

Let loose the hounds!




You are so bad Dave.....

[KathieK]

Originally Posted by cooker52

"The walls between art and engineering only exist only in our minds" Theo Jansen.

Absolutely incredeible.

I also agree, these videos took my breath away... I encourage the regional planning committees to include art exhibits in their events like the UTC/New England/Hartford/Connecticut (whatever it's called now) regional has. It's always interesting to me to view the artwork that has been submitted. I want to build something like this! Who's gonna help me?
If you enjoy this type of kinetic scultpture, you might enjoy fooling around with www.sodaplay.com - it allows you to build animated structures online and looks like a lot of fun.

[Jeremiah Johnson]

I watched this last night and I was awestruck. Same with my parents. As the artist and engineer-wannabe that I am, I'm going to have to do something like this. It's just amazing! I love how art and engineering frequently cross paths.

[Andrew Rudolph]

I actually built a small walking bot for one my my industrial design courses when we were tasked with making a mechanical toy:



Its all CNC'd lexan for the legs and the motors and electronics are from a cheap toy car, the cover is vacuum formed polystyrene and the chassis is welded steel. It was really awesome spending time developing and understanding how to make the legs give the correct motion, it was a neat project. Higher rez pic available over @ http://www.flickr.com/photos/tmbrudy/412339389/

[vivek16]

this is amazing. the motion is so smooth... wow