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After doing my spider walker
http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=46662
http://news.lugnet.com/technic/?n=10712 , which was essentially a bi-ped with
overlapping footprints, I decided to create a walking caterpillar.
It has 12 pairs of independent legs which move in the rhythmic pattern
typical of caterpillars. As with the spider, this self-contained unit carries
its battery pack with it. The caterpillar folder after moderation:
http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=47160 contains an MPEG of it
walking.
While experimenting with leg configurations I noticed something interesting
about the large pulley wheels I'm using as hubs. In the final version I have
the legs spaced such that 6 make a complete cycle about the hub. Other obvious
possibilities which space them equidistantly are 3 and 2, but more are better
since they make for a smoother stride with less up and down motion of the body.
The interesting thing that I noticed is that they can also be equidistantly
spaced at 4 and 12 per cycle. This is accomplished by rotating every other hub
through a 90 degree revolution before attaching it to the axle.
Brian H. Nielsen
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