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Where Jules Verne Meets Star Wars: GE's Walking Truck

Posted by Soulskill on from the i'll-order-a-dozen dept.

An anonymous reader writes "This July 4th weekend, millions of Americans will head to the air-conditioned confines of their local multiplex to take in Harry Potter, Captain America and other summer blockbusters. A military relic that foreshadowed a sci-fi vehicle featured in perhaps the most popular summer movie of all time – Star Wars – is on exhibit at the U.S. Army Transportation Musem at Fort Eustis: GE's Pedipulator, or 'Walking Truck,' developed for the U.S. Army in the mid-'60s. GE's quadroped was first imagined and lumbered through its testing paces in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, starting in 1962, 15 years before George Lucas's AT-AT walkers debuted on the big screen."

10 of 57 comments (clear)

  1. Where are these moviegoers?? by BillCable · · Score: 2

    Apparently all these moviegoers are in another dimension, as neither Harry Potter nor Captain America will be in theaters in ours this July 4th weekend...

  2. ugh.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    Turn in your nerd card subby. AT-ATs debuted in The Empire Strikes Back - 1980. That would be 18 years after 1962.

  3. Video by Mindcontrolled · · Score: 2

    I found a video of the contraption that is shown in one of the pictures of TFA here. Conspicuously, it only shows a daring engineer rocking back and forth in the cockpit, while never showing the legs of the thing actually moving. Would be great if anyone could dig up more video of this. Needs more brass wheels and handles to qualify for proper steampunk, though.

    --
    Ubi solitudinem faciunt, pacem appellant.
  4. A good early piece of work by Animats · · Score: 5, Interesting

    That's a well-known early development in walking machines. Technically it's closer to being an exoskeleton than a robot. It's slaved to the limbs of the guy inside, and is dependent on his balance reflexes. That didn't work out too well.

    It took a long time to get legged machines to work well. Most early work was about gait and foot coordination. It turns out that balance is more important than gait, and slip control is more important than balance. It finally all came together with BigDog. (BigDog demonstrates that the technology was finally far enough along that throwing $20 million at the problem was a win. Money alone is not enough; see the Flight Telerobotic Servicer, on which NASA blew over $200 million in the late 1980s. DARPA also funded a 6-legged walking truck in the 1980s, but it never got beyond a slow walk on easy terrain.)

    The GE walker dates from an era when American industry tried to push the state of the art with ambitious internal research projects. That's rare in the US today. But in Germany, there's Festo. Every year, Festo does an impressive robotics project. They've done a flexible manta ray which swims through water; it's highly maneuverable and moves and looks like a real manta ray. Most recently, they built a robot bird, which flies around gracefully and under good control.

    1. Re:A good early piece of work by LWATCDR · · Score: 2

      I remember seeing a four legged running robot on Nova. It to a VAX to control it. At the time I thought "well that is useless it takes a freaking VAX". Well now that I have the power of many VAXen in my cell phone it doesn't seem that bad of an idea at all.
      We have so much computing power in our hands that things like this are getting much easier. Of course I do not think we will ever see Mechs for the simple reason that a tank is a much smaller target and can probably be better armored.

      --
      See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
  5. Boston Dynamics Big Dog by DigiShaman · · Score: 3, Informative

    Check out this robo-mule. It runs of a two-stroke engine and can withstand a kick to the side. The way in which it corrects itself in realtime is no different than that of a real animal. In fact, the motion is kinda creepy. A four legged headless beast.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cHJJQ0zNNOM

    --
    Life is not for the lazy.
  6. Re:With todays technology by Sinthet · · Score: 2

    I've always wondered if you could create an EMP generator that is weak enough not to destroy consumer electronics but fry spy devices... This might amount to a pipe-dream, since I've forgotten exactly how these things work, but it'd be the only way to ensure your privacy short of discharging an actual full-scale EMP in an area where you know you don't have any "friendly" electronics.

  7. Walking Tree Harvester by flatass · · Score: 2

    Commercial example of this technology here

  8. sounds good by demonbug · · Score: 2

    This July 4th weekend, millions of Americans will head to the air-conditioned confines of their local multiplex to take in Harry Potter, Captain America

    Sounds good. I'm curious to see how they combined the fantasy wizardry of Harry Potter with the comic book antics of Captain America. I'm also curious to see whether they will address the back story - obviously there must be quite an interesting tale of how Harry abandoned his homeland and became a symbol of American values.

    Or maybe I should learn to read ;)

  9. sometimes you do something just 'cuz it's cool... by Thud457 · · Score: 2

    You can't fight city hall, but sometimes you can knock it the fuck over.

    --

    the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff