Newsgroups: comp.robotics
Path: brunix!cat.cis.Brown.EDU!agate!library.ucla.edu!csulb.edu!csus.edu!netcom.com!nagle
From: nagle@netcom.com (John Nagle)
Subject: Re: Locomotion (was Re: Will robots make better sex partners?)
Message-ID: <nagleCu4n6A.5o9@netcom.com>
Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 261-4700 guest)
References: <1yXJqc1w165w@sfrsa.com> <elaan.116.000D546B@duteisp.et.tudelft.nl> <ASMITH.94Aug5101855@zuggle.east.sun.com> <3206gv$kvf@Times.Stanford.EDU>
Date: Sat, 6 Aug 1994 18:54:10 GMT
Lines: 28

mark@killdeer.Stanford.EDU (Mark Hosang Yim) quotes somebody who said:
>>Here's a wierd idea, but has anyone ever heard of work on treaded
>>feet?  That is, give a robot several largish "feet" at the end of
>>legs, so the walking was possible, but put treads on each foot so that
>>with the legs locked out, the treads could be engaged and a 'rolling'
>>mode of travel used instead of a 'walking' mode.  I suppose it could
>>be wheels rather than treads.  Think  R2D2 with longer legs and knees.

>This has been done.  Actually, there are lots of what I call 
>"combination gaits" in existance.  Here are some examples: 
>(I don't have the full reference on hand, just 1st author and year...)
>Legs with tracks on them	Kholer 1977
>Legs with tracks on them	Maeda 1985
>Wheels with legs on them	Omichi 1983
>Tracks with wheels on them	Lockheed-Forsythe vehicle (Bekkar 1969)
>Wheels with wheels on them	AIROLL vehicle (Bekkar 1969)
>tracks with legs on them	me 1994 (in simulation)

      The first, though, was Jules Verne's "The Land Ironclads", which
used "Pedrails", tracks with feet on them.

>There is also an articulated tracked robot currently commercially
>available.

      That's a nice piece of machinery, from a company in Oak Ridge, TN.
Priced around $100,000.  Teleoperated.

					John Nagle
