Alt-BEAM Archive

Message #08854



To: beam@sgiblab.sgi.com
From: Evaristo Westplate evaristo@qctechnology.nl
Date: Thu, 06 Jan 2000 09:19:37 +0100
Subject: [alt-beam] Re: Biped Beam Bots


Hi,

>As far as I've seen...MIT's "tail" comes in contact with the ground from
>time to time, though. This tail would probably do better between the legs
>than up in the air.

When you place the tail between the legs then it will be impossible to let
the walker stand on one leg because the center of gravity will remain
between the legs. Suppose the tail is behind the legs so it can swing
freely to the left or right. No then the whole center of gravity would be
so low that it will take a lot of efforts to get the robot stand on one
leg. The whole issue is center of gravity. The higher it is the easier it
is to shift it. Besides isn't a tail designed to prevent an animal/robot
from falling when the body bends forward towards the ground? A can remember
a walker which had a rod mounted on the waist. The rod pointed upwards and
at the end of it there was a weight attached. By moving the rod the robot
could control the center of gravity. I have seen a video of this robot
walking and you could see very clearly how the rod controlled the balance.

I have a presentation about the walker which I build but it was made on an
amiga computer. It explained the whole concept (it was my school project on
which I graduated).

See'ya


Evaristo

Gizmo homepage: http://www.crosswinds.net/~evaristo
Biped photos : http://www.crosswinds.net/~evaristo/biped.html

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