Re: Infantry Walkers

Aaron Teske wrote:

> At 11:33 PM 8/23/98 -0600, Chen-Song Qin wrote:
> >>An
> >> IW should be able to walk, jog, run, crawl, kneel, jump, everything
a
> human
> >
> >Hmmm... do you know how many muscles it takes to perform these
actions
> >well with humans?  If you want to do this with some kind of vehicle,
> >there's going to be a *lot* of moving joints.  All of them have to be
> >*very* tough to withstand the strain, and also have to be very small
to
> >fit into the walker.  This is also going to wind up being a
mechanical
> >nightmare to maintain and repair.
>
> Here, I agree with you; walkers that can pull off "everything a human
can"
> will be very hard to develop.  Variable-speed walkers (walk/jog/run),
> jumping, and crawling shouldn't be too hard, though.	I'd guess the
> trickiest would be crawling, though regaining balance after a jump
would be
> a trick, too.
>

Once again you are limiting yourself to current technology.  If you can
postulate

mini fusion plants, it shouldn't be a great leap to extrapolate
Superconducting
joints that allow micrometer control combined with large amounts of
torque.
All the units could be solid-state with frictionless bearings.	With
that much
power
you can generate joints, limbs and extenders that move under magnetic
influences
driven by superconducting magenets.  Using computers to control the
direction
and size of the force vector you could achieve a huge amount of
flexibility with
fewer parts - i.e. the rod that makes up the arm would be driven up and
down
by magnets, but also could be rotated within its sheath by magnets, thus
eliminating
one rotating joint.  Since Superconducting magnets can be fricitonless
and
hard-wired into materials, your standard limb might consist of a
titanium
rod covered in superconducting material that fits within an armored
sleeve
lined with super conducting material.  No grease, no tiny electric
motors, few
parts to wear out...

> Using current tech, sure.  Using more advanced materials, who knows? 
(And
> for the record, I'm a materials engineer, currently working on turbine
> blades... not robots, but what the heck. ^_- )
>
> Later,
>					  Aaron Teske
>					  ateske@HICom.net