Real Life Star Wars AT-ST Walker?

#1

Post by psogle » Fri, Jan 14, 2011, 7:11 PM UTC

Real Life Star Wars AT-ST Walker?
blog.machinefinder.com

Re: Real Life Star Wars AT-ST Walker?

#2

Post by joshrule » Fri, Jan 14, 2011, 7:54 PM UTC

Here's another video of it doing close to 0-radius turning: - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0gk-yQ1H3M8

This prototype reminds me more of big dog: - http://www.bostondynamics.com/robot_bigdog.html

A quick google search didn't turn up anything at deere.com. But, the device was made by Plustech, now Timberjack. Anybody find anything more specific?

Re: Real Life Star Wars AT-ST Walker?

#3

Post by rtghnthyjnm » Fri, Jan 14, 2011, 8:21 PM UTC

It was built by a Finnish company called Plustech 15 years which went bust and through a series of takeovers ended up as john Deere

Re: Real Life Star Wars AT-ST Walker?

#4

Post by zacharycohn » Fri, Jan 14, 2011, 8:43 PM UTC

joshrule wrote: post #2

Here's another video of it doing close to 0-radius turning: - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0gk-yQ1H3M8 This prototype reminds me more of big dog: - http://www.bostondynamics.com/robot_bigdog.html A quick google search didn't turn up anything at deere.com. But, the device was made by Plustech, now Timberjack. Anybody find anything more specific?

The original article said it the prototype was discontinued.

Re: Real Life Star Wars AT-ST Walker?

#5

Post by georgieporgie » Fri, Jan 14, 2011, 8:50 PM UTC

rtghnthyjnm wrote: post #3

It was built by a Finnish company called Plustech 15 years which went bust and through a series of takeovers ended up as john Deere

I recall being extremely impressed with the Finnish demo video. Sad to hear that they didn't make it.

Re: Real Life Star Wars AT-ST Walker?

#6

Post by Groxx » Fri, Jan 14, 2011, 9:09 PM UTC

Ridiculous linkbait title.

It's a 6 legged John Deere (apparently by parent-company purchase) prototype machine, primarily developed for logging in difficult terrain. Looks remarkably steady and well designed, and it's discontinued.

And AT-STs are the two legged ones, AT-ATs are the 4 legged.

Re: Real Life Star Wars AT-ST Walker?

#7

Post by nhangen » Sat, Jan 15, 2011, 12:14 AM UTC

I was hoping for guns or laser cannons, but it's still pretty sweet.

Re: Real Life Star Wars AT-ST Walker?

#8

Post by teamonkey » Sat, Jan 15, 2011, 12:59 AM UTC

Groxx wrote: post #6

Ridiculous linkbait title. It's a 6 legged John Deere (apparently by parent-company purchase) prototype machine, primarily developed for logging in difficult terrain. Looks remarkably steady and well designed, and it's discontinued. And AT-STs are the two legged ones, AT-ATs are the 4 legged.

AT-TEs are the 6-legged ones.

Re: Real Life Star Wars AT-ST Walker?

#9

Post by feral » Sat, Jan 15, 2011, 3:00 AM UTC

Link bait title, and the video was uploaded to youtube in 2006 - seen it years ago. Prototypes aren't hard - useful mass production is hard.

Re: Real Life Star Wars AT-ST Walker?

#10

Post by srean » Sat, Jan 15, 2011, 4:26 AM UTC

Groxx wrote: post #6

Ridiculous linkbait title. It's a 6 legged John Deere (apparently by parent-company purchase) prototype machine, primarily developed for logging in difficult terrain. Looks remarkably steady and well designed, and it's discontinued. And AT-STs are the two legged ones, AT-ATs are the 4 legged.

What I found was that it always kept 4 feet planted on the ground. Insects typically have 3 in contact with the ground and the other 3 propelling it. 3 is the minimum required for static stability, so insects with this gait are always statically stable. This machine seems to have been optimized for stability. It would be interesting to know whether it has a fixed gait or dynamically decides on which leg(s) to move based on its orientation, velocity and acceleration.