Newsgroups: comp.robotics
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From: mreddy@glamorgan.ac.uk (Mike Reddy)
Subject: Potential Speed of Hexapod Walkers?
Message-ID: <mreddy-191094083737@mreddy.comp.glam.ac.uk>
Followup-To: comp.robotics
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Organization: Computer Studies, Glamorgan University
Date: Wed, 19 Oct 1994 08:37:37 GMT
Lines: 26

I recently visited Owen Holland at UWE in Bristol and he showed me MARV,
a six legged walker developed for a student project. Though beautifully
built it was quite slow; we had been talking about what robot behaviours
made people attribute life to machines, and one of these was speed/size.

Common sense would tell me that very small and very large things would be
"allowed" to go slowly, but anything above an inch or two would have to
move fairly fast to match corresponding animal speeds. Clearly there is an
inverse relationship in performance: faster = more power = bigger battery
load. Now, wheeled vehicles can go pretty fast, but they are less like
human experience (unless the rainforest harbours a wheeled insect... 8-) ).

So my questions are: "What speeds have you seen walkers getting up to?",
"What speeds would be reasonable to expect from current battery and motor
technology?" and "What speed would you expect an animal of a foot or two to
get up to?"

Yours Mike Reddy
--
P.S. I would have had a witty signature, but the Government put VAT on it!
P.P.S. I live at mreddy@uk.ac.glamorgan OR mreddy@glamorgan.ac.uk if you
are unlucky enough to live outside the UK! 8-)

Snail Mail: Mike Reddy, J228, Dept. of Computer Studies, University of
Glamorgan, Pontypridd, Mid Glamorgan. CF37 1DL Wales, UK
Tel: +44 (0)443 482 240 Fax: +44 (0)443 482 715
