Please help build a full-size Imperial Walker

[bassrique]

I know this is goofy, but do we have the technology to build something like this?

YouTube - Hoth Snow Battle Star Wars Episoe V The Empire Strikes Back

NERDS OF AMERICA:

We were once a country that made things: giantmetal cars, Hoover Dams, non-AutoTuned popular music.

But now we are stuck in an economy in limbo, surrounded by our Internets, our hipsters and our arguing politicians.

Nerds, I have a great idea to make America great again. We can show our brain power, our manufacturing prowess, our organizational skills and our geek-fueled eye for detail.

That idea: an AT-AT for America.

Now I have an idea, but no money and a total lack of mechanical aptitude.

That’s why I am hoping this project spreads like wildfire, inspiring the nerds, makers, geeks, motorheads, sportos, dudes, steampunks, Jedis, halfwits, greasers and geniuses to band together for one goal.

To build a fully fuctional, full-scale model of an AT-AT Imperial Walker from The Empire Strikes Back.*

Impossible? Perhaps. Inspiring? Of course.

The AT-AT would become an instant monument of America’s obsession with popular culture and our ability to be awesome.

I’ve already shared this idea with some of the kings of geek/make culture. Adam Savage of Mythbusters, Mark F. of BoingBoing and Make Magazine and Ken Denmead of Geekdad.com.

Now the rest is up to you. Spread the word. Get organized. We can get this done.

If America can put a man on the Moon, we can bring a little bit of Hoth to the Earth.

To volunteer to help, email ATATforAmerica@hotmail.com

* - Yes, there’s a model at Disney’s Hollywood theme park. But it’s not fully functional and not nearly as cool as this one is going to be.

AT-AT for America, The Dream: An AT-AT for America

[bongomania]

I get the appeal, but don't we already know that the AT-AT is worthless since it can be taken down with only a biplane and some rope?

[bassrique]

Originally Posted by bongomania

I get the appeal, but don't we already know that the AT-AT is worthless since it can be taken down with only a biplane and some rope?

The Next Gen Imperial Walker would have lasers and razors on the legs to defeat any tripping strategery.

[T-Bird]

Hi.

As an BEng mech and a Sci-Fi freak, that would be cool, but impossible to pull off AFAIK.

There's a very good reason most of the robots that use legs, resemble spiders rather than mammal bipeds or even quadrapeds.

Just take Your AT-AT model (the torso filled with sand preferably), raise one leg and watch what happens. If You do it carefully enough and nothing happens, raise the diagonally opposite leg for a step movement and by now it'll be perfectly clear why it won't work.

An antigrav unit is the key here, unless You want to fill the torso with a huge gyroscope or a three .

Regards
Sam

[electracoyote]

Originally Posted by bongomania

I get the appeal, but don't we already know that the AT-AT is worthless since it can be taken down with only a biplane and some rope?

Good one. My first thought exactly.

[WalterBush]

Originally Posted by T-Bird

Hi.

As an BEng mech and a Sci-Fi freak, that would be cool, but impossible to pull off AFAIK.

There's a very good reason most of the robots that use legs, resemble spiders rather than mammal bipeds or even quadrapeds.

Just take Your AT-AT model (the torso filled with sand preferably), raise one leg and watch what happens. If You do it carefully enough and nothing happens, raise the diagonally opposite leg for a step movement and by now it'll be perfectly clear why it won't work.

An antigrav unit is the key here, unless You want to fill the torso with a huge gyroscope or a three .

Regards
Sam

So, we keep the movement low to the ground so as to keep the center of gravity from shifting too heavily with each step, and we move each leg in sequence, like an iguana rather than moving like a horse or giraffe.

I think we could do it, and it's as worthy a national goal as I've heard anybody in Washington talk about. Well, ok, maybe not, but I like the idea anyway.

[ehque]

Originally Posted by T-Bird

Hi.

As an BEng mech and a Sci-Fi freak, that would be cool, but impossible to pull off AFAIK.

There's a very good reason most of the robots that use legs, resemble spiders rather than mammal bipeds or even quadrapeds.

Just take Your AT-AT model (the torso filled with sand preferably), raise one leg and watch what happens. If You do it carefully enough and nothing happens, raise the diagonally opposite leg for a step movement and by now it'll be perfectly clear why it won't work.

An antigrav unit is the key here, unless You want to fill the torso with a huge gyroscope or a three .

Regards
Sam

YouTube - Boston Dynamics Big Dog (new video March 2008)

The tech is there, you just need to scale it up.

[nocontrols]

Originally Posted by bongomania

I get the appeal, but don't we already know that the AT-AT is worthless since it can be taken down with only a biplane and some rope?

Originally Posted by WalterBush

So, we keep the movement low to the ground so as to keep the center of gravity from shifting too heavily with each step, and we move each leg in sequence, like an iguana rather than moving like a horse or giraffe.

Gah, those original AT-AT's were so poorly engineered, it's like the Emporer WANTED them to fall over or something.

[UncleFluffy]

Originally Posted by T-Bird

Hi.

As an BEng mech and a Sci-Fi freak, that would be cool, but impossible to pull off AFAIK.

Have you seen the video of the 1-legged hopping robots? You don't need a gyroscope, it's possible to fix the balance issues with accelerometers and software.

My question is: "does fully-functional include weapon systems?"

[colcifer]

Originally Posted by ehque

YouTube - Boston Dynamics Big Dog (new video March 2008)

The tech is there, you just need to scale it up.

YouTube - Battle-Ready Big Dog (newest video September 2008)

[T-Bird]

Hi.

Originally Posted by ehque

YouTube - Boston Dynamics Big Dog (new video March 2008)

The tech is there, you just need to scale it up.

Cool toy, but that what it's been for the three or four years it's been around. And probably not in the budget of the "AT-ATforamerica" . Don't they have a 6 leg version as well?

"Just scale it up"?

Any technology that deals with dynamic loads and mechatronics is unfortunately not that scalable.

Originally Posted by UncleFluffy

Have you seen the video of the 1-legged hopping robots? You don't need a gyroscope, it's possible to fix the balance issues with accelerometers and software.

Nope, link please.

Regards
Sam

[NateS]

curious to see this little debate scale out.

and full replica BETTER mean weapons systems.

[UncleFluffy]

Originally Posted by T-Bird

Nope, link please.

This was before youtube. I'll see if I can find a link but think 50cm dia x 30cm high cylinder with a 1m leg. Steerable, could travel about as fast as a human.

[WalterBush]

Originally Posted by UncleFluffy

This was before youtube. I'll see if I can find a link but think 50cm dia x 30cm high cylinder with a 1m leg. Steerable, could travel about as fast as a human.

I think I saw the robot you're referring to, on a NOVA special along with a six-legged walker that carried a man and a couple of other prototypes. The hopper looked vaguely like the helmet Christopher Loyd wore in Back to the Future on top of a pogo stick, right?

If I recall, the walker they showed was a prototype done in the early '70s...one would think we'd all have all-terrain recreational walkers by now.

By all means, fully functional should mean fully functional weapon systems...just a word of warning from a guy who worked at a military proving ground until recently...the US armed forces will be VERY interested in figuring out how someone managed to make a device capable of carrying two charged particle projectors on the front, and wasn't the size of a couple of skyscrapers.

Of course, I'm not against building the thing as big as a couple of skyscrapers

[T-Bird]

Hi.

Originally Posted by UncleFluffy

This was before youtube. I'll see if I can find a link but think 50cm dia x 30cm high cylinder with a 1m leg. Steerable, could travel about as fast as a human.

Out of curiosity I typed: "one legged robot" on Youtube and found:

This?

YouTube - 3D One-Leg Hopper Robot

Fits better to WalterBush's description than on Yours though.

Regards
Sam

[EdHunter]

If the USA gets an AT-AT, does Europe get an AT-TE?

[rekesbass]

didn't the Ewoks kick their butts???

[Big_Daddy]

Unless we can build a Metal Gear (or at the very least, the Shagohod), I won't be investing my money in such a creation...but cruising down the main drag in an ATAT would be pretty awesome.

[Darth Handsome]

Walker shmalker. Let's see you build a Death Star.

PS: omit the trench

[Jimbob Jones]

Why group this many scientific/engineering brains together to build something thatt was concieved in the 70s? Why not build something newer? Cooler? I for one would love to see someone build a working model of the motorbike from the new Star Trek movie, or a working Iron Man suit.