Theo Jansen walking Mechanism

thingiverse

I was working on something like a "walking machnie" based on the mechanism of Theo Jansens "strandbeest". The parts of both - Prototype I and Prototype II - work fine but I had troubles finding a suitable connection for the joints, since some of them require to be rotatable whilst others need to be locked. Further it was difficult preventing the screw-heads from getting in the way of each another. Therefore I built the third Prototype of this out of 3d-printed elements that had cavities for the heads of the screws (have a looka t my other projects, I uploaded this as a separate thingy). Instructions For both prototypes I uploaded the blueprint that I lasercut in plexiglass. The joints I build with m4-screws and aluminum sticks. Since "Prototype I" was just a very rough model I used the cardboard box of a 10-pack as a chassis. This project is not finished yet, if you want to work on it this interactive animation of the mechanism might be helpful to you:http://www.mekanizmalar.com/theo_jansen.html