Subject:
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Re: New Years Resolution Runner
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.technic
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Date:
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Wed, 26 Nov 2003 18:15:24 GMT
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Viewed:
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2421 times
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Kevin L. Clague wrote:
> In my mind, running means all feet off the ground, no matter how many feet the
> walker has. I did not assume bipedalism.
Well by that defintion, simply flipping one of your many walkers
upsidedown would make it "running" :)
I actually studied quadraped running back in 1981 when I was writing a
game on an Apple ][+ for a graphic dog-racing simulation/game. I looked
at many a still snapshot of animals in full runs before I was able to
piece together how they did it (VCR's were only just _STARTING_ to
become affordable then, and ones with slo-mo capability were still in
the thousands of dollars).
Anyways, each "step" of a dog's run is evidentally a very long and very
shallow jump. The key seems to be in the strength of the rear legs,
which provides a sudden and powerful lift. The front legs seem to act
as a brake of sorts, allowing the dog to catch himself from falling nose
first into the dirt. Each jump is extremely shallow, so the animal is
able to level himself off with its front legs as he quickly draws them
back. At the same time, the rear legs have moved forward and the animal
again makes another leap, bending its front legs so as not to interfere
with the motion and then quickly pulling them forward again to catch
itself at the end of its next "step". The overall effect is actually
quite graceful.
I don't think you'd be able to do this with LEGO. You might be able to
duplicate the motion, but you'd need enough strength in the legs to
actually *FORCE* the whole model into the air for some discernable
distance, and I can't see LEGO pneumatics being strong enough to
accomplish that.
Then again, I'd be impressed as heck to be proven wrong. Before the hot
air baloon was discovered, it was impossible for man to fly.
>> Mark
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Message has 3 Replies:
 | | Re: New Years Resolution Runner
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| (...) You got me there :^) (...) Yes. This is what I've seen in slow motion of cheetahs. Plenty of arching/flexing in the back also. (...) I was assuming motor and battery pack, but when pumped hard enough pedmatic nearly runs. Large pistons are too (...) (21 years ago, 26-Nov-03, to lugnet.technic)
| | | Re: New Years Resolution Runner
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| (...) I've just built a prototype motorized quadraped as a design study to see how feasible a design like this is. It uses rubber bands on the legs to give some spring, and its motion is a bit like a bucking bronco, with both the front and rear legs (...) (21 years ago, 27-Nov-03, to lugnet.technic)
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