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How does the Abyssinian dreadnaught walk?


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Similar to walking on a cane, lean over two, move the third. Only with a bot the two you lean over rotates as you go. It definitely presents a problem, since three-legged stools/chairs are more stable than 4-legged (great for a shooting platform, not so great on movement). It's nowhere near as efficient as a four-legged walker would be (leaning on three requires less center-of-mass shifting).

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I don't rule out the cantor, and once momentum is up it can definitely get rolling. I'm thinking from the robotics walking problem set. Robotic bipeds are incredibly hard to get walking because of the balance and center-of-gravity shifting problem that biological bipeds have an organic solution to (stabilizers, ligaments, and various sensors literally from head to toe). There's been a lot of progress in the biped robotic movement using 'kid legs' springing to keep in motion which can definitely be used with a tripod platform.

 

In the case of the model pose, the wide spread from the center of mass would be a shooting stance: more stable and static, allowing for increased rate of fire and accuracy over a bipedal construct firing the same class of weapon. To get moving, the legs would need to actuate in such a way where the stance is not so deep, pulling the feet closer to the center of gravity and then doing what living bipeds do when running: controlled falling where the center of gravity is effectively constantly falling in the direction that the walk is trying to go, only a leg is there to stop the fall. This creates an arc of movement (momentum carrying it on the single leg like a pole vaulter) which the other legs follow through on and create a more stable (temporarily) fulcrum while the third leg goes out again. Stopping then becomes a momentum-arresting problem (pneumatic systems absorbing?) and settling down into a shooting position.

 

My earlier description is more along the lines of picking through a battlefield carefully, kind of a creeping movement (slow, steady) in order to support engaging a foe in any direction on a moment's notice. Due to the greater stability of such movement, it would still be quicker (based on reliability, there's a mantra I learned in my previous career: slow is smooth, smooth is fast) than a bipedal construct trying to maneuver through the same obstacles and conditions.


If I were a better artist I'd provide some drawings of what I'm trying to describe.

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  • 2 months later...

Abyssinan tech being as advanced as it is, and with the drednaught's center of gravity being that wide, I could totally see it having some form of internal pendulum that acts as a counterbalance to the leg, if each leg doesn't have an internal pendulum of it's own to help with regulation of stance.

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