AT-ATs Coming to a Forest Near You

Audent writes "Not strictly speaking anything any of us should classify as work related, or even open source, but holy shitbags! I want one of these. Plustech, a subsidiary of tractor maker John Deere, has built a six-legged walking logging machine that just has to be the prototype for an AT-AT walker. Imagine parking this puppy at the mall!"

Comments

Doesn't look like an AT-AT

[PaxTech]

It does look like a giant mechanical ant though. From the videos, it looks SLOW and LOUD.

Still, I want one.

Different Walk styles..

[Kraphty]

I noticed that in one of the videos is walks with three legs at a time, keeping a tripod, and in the other it moves one leg at a time. Is there a specific reason for this? Perhaps something to do with the terrain?

Re:Different Walk styles..

[Sweetums]

If I remember right, the alternating 3 leg movement is the best case for a 6 leg walker. There were some interesting experiments done with simple walking robots, disabling legs and such and watching how it parallelled insects with a damaged leg.

I'd bet it depends on if there is an imbalance in weight distribution and one side can't pick up 2 legs at the same time, which would probably force it into one at a time movement. Just a guess though. Theres lots of research done on simple walking robots done with really minimal fedback control circuits. They do teh same stuff. Of course the extra degrees of freedom in the joints makes things a little harder.

Lethal looking motherfucker...

[sfled]

...a little bullet-proof glass, some armor & weapons...the little bitch is made for close-quarter urban demolition zone warfare.

Re:They look rather insectile.

[esper_child]

First think I thought of when I saw it was to mount guns on it. Maybe a 20mm gun or a .50 cal minigun (neither being in a fixed mount). Would be quite useful for military applications, and wouldn't surprise me if it was already being developed with some in mind. Refine the technology enough and you will have some really nice battle platforms for ground operations. maybe we can make it look and act like a scorpion too :)

Other fun legged machines

[big tex]

if you think the logging machine is cool, check out the Spiderplow http://www.spiderplow.com

I worked on a crew that used one of these, installing fiber optic cable down the median of an interstate. The frickin' thing can go through the legs of highway signs, climb off of an 18-wheeler trailer SIDEWAYS, and stand on 1 leg while it's ripping.

The controls seem to be a little more involved than the logger, though. It's got a panel of about 30 two-way levers to control all of the motions. each leg can extend/retract, swivel forward/back, raise/lower, rotate each wheel right /left independently, plus about a dozen controls for the fiber burying blade.

Spiderplow = more bandwidth.
John Deere Forester = toilet paper.

It's ovious which one is the high-tech toy for the nerds :)

Re:military version

[nelsonal]

Actually by the time we invade Iraq, even if we had them, they would sit unused. Deserts are almost ideal for tank battles. I still have an excellent book by a military stratigest, written from the stand point of being at the WWII African battles, he actually went down to study these. Since by and large tank strategies haven't changed alot since WWI or even before, the strategy didn't change the peices just got bigger. Our tank heavy forces are nearly unbeatable. That is one of the main reasons Desert Storm, was so much more successful than Vietnam. Wheeled and tracked vehicles don't have many disadvantages to walkers on flat open ground. This might get used in heavly damaged urban areas, but that would be about it.

Good hoax - but no cigar

[bangzilla]

Go to the John Deere home site http://www.deere.com/en_US/deerecom/johndeere_worl dwide/index.html - no mention of "PlusTech" at all. If you look closely at the photo's of the machine and the video you'll notice they look 'artificial' -- a little too clean and crisp compared with the background. Also, if you're going to video your state-of-the-art vehicle wouldn't you get a better location for your camera than back behind a boat-load of trees and bushes? Funny how the web site is unfinished (i.e. the boaring elements to fake up havn't been done -- but the fun graphics have). Well executed mind-you, but someone should tell the guys (or gals) who did this that it's "April 1" they should have been shooting for, not "August 1"

Re:Good hoax - but no cigar

[bogomipe]

Sorry to spoil your fun, but the project has been popping up in Finnish media for several years now. The company developing the beast was bought up by John Deere some time ago.. maybe the integration of the companies and websites is a bit behind schedule?

I speak for the trees

[frenchgates]

I realize that the purpose of this device is to lessen the impact of vehicles on the forest, which is great, but is anyone else freaked out by its resemblance to the rapid forest destroying machines in Dr. Seuss's "The Lorax"? Maybe Hollywood can make a live action version now.

AT-AT: Bah! What's REALLY cool is...

[jbarr]

...the cutter mechanism on the end of it's boom. That is REALLY cool. I saw a show on TLC (I think it was Modern Marvels or something) that showed how this cutting head works. It grabs onto a tree trunk, cuts it off, rolls the length of the trunk stripping off the branches, and then rolls back over the trunk cutting it into pre-determined lengths. It estimates these lengths by determinig the tree's length by using the tree's diameter and stored "tree data" based on tree type. Seeing this thing in action leaves your eyes glued to the TV and your jaw glued to the floor!!!