Re: [OT] Mecha - coming to a forest near you!

on 02.6.21 0:56 PM, Ryan Gill at rmgill@mindspring.com scribbleth:
>
> Ground pressure is going to be far higher than a tracked vehicle.
> However, being able to place individual legs over a large log and
> ignore said log would be a great benefit to mobitily.

Ground pressure is a key point. Probably require stompin' boots.
 
 
 
>> I'd bet maintenance is worse than treads, and will probably remain
worse no
>> matter how much they improve the design.
> 
> Well it's going to be all hydraulically controlled and nicely sealed.
> Seal the leg joints with heavy rubber boots and unless one is cut and
> breached your seals will be pretty safe and dry.

Even with full seals, the design either (1) has a large number of
joints,
one for each degree of freedom on each leg or (2) has a complex joint
with
multiple degrees of freedom. Treads are essentially glorified rollers,
and
while you can drop a track, the tread mechanism itself is relatively
tough
and adjustment-free, because it is constrained in a very
narrowly-defined
motion path, with only two directions of travel both on the same axis. A
leg
mechanism, no matter how they design it, is going to be a nightmare of
components with enormous fluctuations in loading. I'd love to be on the
design team, but I'd really, really hate to have to deliver one on a
schedule. 


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