Strandbeest

[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