a history of cybernetic animals and early robots
"Bicycle built for shoe" Oct (19th?), 1981 Tokyo, Mon. – On your bike – and run! This ingenious contraption, being driven by a Japanese inventor, is a joggercycle. Pedal power drives a pair of running shoes through a mechanical linkage. The joggercycle reached the finals of a Japanese industrial firm's [RH-Honda] idea contest.
from Popular Mechanics , June 1934 STILT CYCLE HAS TWO LEGS INSTEAD OF WHEELS Wooden legs replace the wheels on a stilt cycle made by a Los Angeles man who proudly boasts that he can now sit down while walking. The two legs are pedaled like a bicycle, the rider balancing on a seat at …
Earlier 1976 version sans stereo cameras. See a few seconds of McGhee's OSU Hexapod in motion in my walking machine compilation video clip. Stop Press! 20 Oct 2010: Just found fabulous footage of this walker plus others. 50meg download. mp4 runs for 16 mins. see here. McGhee used Electric drill's to power the legs, similar …
Diagram from Bessonov's and Umnov's paper. As seen at the Russian Polytechnic Museum in Moscow. Abstract from Bessonov's and Umnov's 1983 paper. This paper shows that in the task of the maintenance of constant orientation of the body of a walking robot the determination of the actual position of the body, i.e. absolute altitudes of its …
Read More “1983 – Six-Legged Walking Machine – Bessonov (Russian)”
Source: St Paul Globe 10 Dec 1889 A WALKING MACHINE A Minneapolis Man Comes to the Front With a Novel Invention. A Minneapolis man comes to the front with a walking machine. It is a cool, breezy day with a refrigerator in the corner when there is anything invented any place in the world ahead …
Read More “1889 – Walking Machine – Ira C.C. Rinehart (American)”