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Strandbeest

strandbeest.com

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Re: Strandbeest

#31

Post by anamexis »

fragmede wrote: post #26
polishdude20 wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wouldn't a legged vehicle still have that problem if it can achieve the same speeds and weights that regular cars go at? Scale up a human for example to the weight and speed of a car. Crazy powerful and big legs, big feet, big shoes. The rubber must hit the road either way and push down with a force to propel the weight of this car-heavy legged human at speeds of 100km/h. It would still wear rubber away just like tir…

> The rubber must hit the road if the wheels were metal and the roadway was also metal, but arranged into parallel small roadways, then we could avoid using rubber and not have the problem of rubber particulates.

Seems like in that case, you could just use cogwheels and racks, and avoid the complexity of legs.

Re: Strandbeest

#32

Post by shagie »

toolslive wrote: post #21

There have been efforts to use a similar concept to clear out mine fields.

Similar in visual appearance, difference in design.

https://medium.com/kickstarter/the-explosion-artist-5db66a99...

> Aside from these functional benefits, Mine Kafon has an undeniable aesthetic beauty. The tumbling dandelion-like structure recalls Dutch sculptor Theo Jansen’s Strandbeests, similarly fashioned from repurposed industrial materials and eerily imbued with life by the wind. Hassani’s work even caught the eye of MoMA’s Senior Curator of Design, Paola Antonelli, who included Mine Kafon in the museum’s 2014 Design and Violence show. More exhibitions around the world followed, and the project became something of a viral sensation, with the elegance of the idea — and Hassani’s inspiring story — propelling the pressing issue of landmines through social media and beyond.

> Mine Kafon also garnered attention from the Dutch Ministry of Defense, which evaluated the design’s effectiveness in their test minefields, ultimately determining that the project was not practical for operational use but still valuable as a tool for raising awareness.

---

It has some issues with following topological contours and one not getting blown up isn't a "this area is clear" (or even a deterministic "this path through this area is clear"). One getting blown up means it found one mine (possible some more if its durable) ... and then you need to clean up the scrap, but this returns to the "you don't have a positive signal of this area is completely free from mines."

Re: Strandbeest

#33

Post by hinkley »

throwaway920102 wrote: post #11

For anyone who wants to know more: This is an application of Jansen's linkage: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jansen%27s_linkage There are other similar linkages but Jansen's is quite good. For anyone who doesn't have an idea why something like this matters or is inspiring beyond art, legged vehicles have many downsides but one big upside is that you can theoretically avoid the rubber/microplastic particulate emission…

I feel like your choice of phrasing downplays the fact that the strandbeest is created by the guy the principle is named after.

Re: Strandbeest

#35

Post by ada1981 »

anamexis wrote: post #31
fragmede wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The rubber must hit the road if the wheels were metal and the roadway was also metal, but arranged into parallel small roadways, then we could avoid using rubber and not have the problem of rubber particulates.

Seems like in that case, you could just use cogwheels and racks, and avoid the complexity of legs.

like, trains?

Re: Strandbeest

#36

Post by tpurves »

Now I am imagining a mars rover that works like one of these. Stampeding over the rocky landscape, powered by martian wind.

Re: Strandbeest

#37

Post by 1attice »

gedy wrote: post #15
mhb wrote: post #5

OK I'll be the one. Not sure why these get so much love. Sure they're cool-looking untethered kites but all the nonsense about "creating new forms of life" - really?

Bear in mind he is an artist, and it's de rigueur to have some story or concept with what you make. I learned this the hard way when I used to do algorithmic art back in college, you can't just say what it is or how you made it.

I came here to say this -- OP seems to be reacting not to the work itself, but to the framing. It reminds me of how my friends used to jump down my throat when I said 'AI' instead of 'Machine Learning' -- they had a point; 'Artificial Intelligence', as a coinage, is tendentiously animistic (just like Jensen's 'new forms of life'.)

Yet, of course, that's exactly how we encounter LLMs! The whole _point_ of ChatGPT isn't to do a "mechanical learning" (whatever that might be,) it's to create an experience that is more reminiscent of talking to another human being. An 'intelligence', if you will, but artificial.

At some point, we will need to tease out why engineering culture is so huffy about articulating its own goals; I have this mental image of a magician standing on stage, berating his audience for ever believing that rabbits could ever be made to come out of hats, all the while collecting a tidy sum for doing just that.

Re: Strandbeest

#39

Post by gjm11 »

jfengel wrote: post #24
johnasmith wrote: post #16

The English translation of the (Dutch) "strandbeest" is "beach animal".

English still uses the cognate "strand" to mean beach or riverside. The most famous is The Strand in London, along the Thames. It's a bit archaic sounding but is not too uncommon.

Likely familiar even if you haven't heard "strand" as such with that meaning: "stranded" (run aground on the beach).

One place where you might possibly have heard "strand" meaning the beach: Lewis Carroll. "The Walrus and the Carpenter were walking on the strand: / They wept like anything to see / Such quantities of sand. / 'If this were only cleared away,' / They said, 'it would be grand.'"

Re: Strandbeest

#40

Post by lucianbr »

throwaway920102 wrote: post #11

For anyone who wants to know more: This is an application of Jansen's linkage: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jansen%27s_linkage There are other similar linkages but Jansen's is quite good. For anyone who doesn't have an idea why something like this matters or is inspiring beyond art, legged vehicles have many downsides but one big upside is that you can theoretically avoid the rubber/microplastic particulate emission…

It says these are made of plastic pipe. Doesn't the pipe wear down where it contacts (or even slides in the video) the ground, creating microplastics?

Also, it already slides some of the time in the videos. Not sure what the advantage is over a simple slide dragged by a sail.

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