Giraffe Gait: ATTN Duane & Martin_H!
To my RoboBuddies:
Our twins keep teaching me new things, some direct, some indirect. I was up late one night with a sick baby watching a PBS nature show on giraffes. I learned that they have a peculiar (possibly unique) walking gait, in that both left legs move in sync, as do the right (galloping is different than walking). I have been looking at my big bag o'servos wondering what to build next, and a 4-legged, 8-servo walker has been on my mind. Yes, probably using an Altoids tin as a chassis. You heard it here first! The giraffe gait has me thinking all sorts of thoughts these days. One chassis could have multiple gaits, of course, but this particular motion might dictate a high CG (doh, like a giraffe's neck) for resonant walking, that is,matching the natural frequency of the robot swaying to the walking frequency. Would probably require foot sensors at a minimum, in lieu of an accelerometer.
Heck, if it's a dedicated giraffe gait, it might be done with just two servos, left/right. Maybe a third servo to shift a long top-mounted neck left & right.
My mind reels with the possibilities. It's almost a humanoid bipedal gait, but two legs on each side eliminates the forward/backward balance requirement. Intriguing, n'est-ce pas?
Our twins keep teaching me new things, some direct, some indirect. I was up late one night with a sick baby watching a PBS nature show on giraffes. I learned that they have a peculiar (possibly unique) walking gait, in that both left legs move in sync, as do the right (galloping is different than walking). I have been looking at my big bag o'servos wondering what to build next, and a 4-legged, 8-servo walker has been on my mind. Yes, probably using an Altoids tin as a chassis. You heard it here first! The giraffe gait has me thinking all sorts of thoughts these days. One chassis could have multiple gaits, of course, but this particular motion might dictate a high CG (doh, like a giraffe's neck) for resonant walking, that is,matching the natural frequency of the robot swaying to the walking frequency. Would probably require foot sensors at a minimum, in lieu of an accelerometer.
Heck, if it's a dedicated giraffe gait, it might be done with just two servos, left/right. Maybe a third servo to shift a long top-mounted neck left & right.
My mind reels with the possibilities. It's almost a humanoid bipedal gait, but two legs on each side eliminates the forward/backward balance requirement. Intriguing, n'est-ce pas?
Comments
I've added a pile of popsicle sticks to my pile of servos and I've been working on a popsicle stick hexapod. I think it will be a while before I try a giraffe.