Project #2: Jansen Walker

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It's been finished for about a week now but I've been too busy to write about it and edit the video etc. I present to you my Jansen Walker, based upon the leg design of Theo Jansen. He uses these types of legs in all of his Strandbeest machines and it is becoming known as the Jansen Linkage. It's actually a very clever mechanism that keeps the foot flat on the floor for as much of the cycle as possible but when it does eventually lift then it has a decent sized step over things. The exact length for each of the 11 linkages were calculated through genetic algorithms, I also found this handy online applet that allows you to change each of the values to see how it affects the stride.

The walker is made from 3mm laser ply, M3 threaded rod and dozens of M3 nuts and nylocs. Each gear is held onto the threaded rod by sandwiching it between nuts. They do come loose occasionally but if done tight they hold quite well. The driving motor is a little underpowered and is just a cheap geared motor used for schools projects. The connection to the driving shaft could be better, I intend to work upon that for future moving projects. As always (svg here)
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