Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2019/10/18/the-6-legged-walker-of-cmu-19.html
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Looks like something Survival Research Laboratories would have built - minus giant saws and/or flame throwers…
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This is from a tear in the space-time continuum and is in fact the Mark II prototype for The Luggage.
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Needs more Sapient Pearwood.
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Nowadays this walker fits on the head of a pin.
And it communicates with your refrigerator to let Amazon know you’re out of milk.
Progress!
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1962 GE Walking Truck
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This machine achieves impressively little motion for all its complexity and power. The designers must have had something else in mind.
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I know this is very early robotics, but that is the derpiest vehicle I’ve ever seen.
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A large less derpy hexapod robot from cerca 1982/83, that could reportedly cary up to 400kg/900lbs and navigate unfamiliar stairs and hallways. It always reminded me of something that would have been seen on Tatooine being sold by Jawas.
Source: uncited video from circa 1983, clip via youtube
“The most useful robots will be those with mobility and versatility…”
See Odetics Odex 1 via TheOldRobots.com
See also CyberneticZoo.com: Odex 1, Stephen J. Bartholet engineer(?)
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Hydraulicspunk?
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I would like to think of those slow, clumsy movements as baby steps. Gotta inefficiently lumber before you can cartwheel.
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Unfortunately the Mark III footage** did not make it through the tear.
The Mark III prototype included the full Sapient Pearwood shell. However, I’ve done a forensic analysis of the video and I can confirm that, as shown below, parts of the chassis were indeed Sapient Pearwood in the Mark II.
** Apologies for unintentional pun. 
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Or ant gallop.
The gait uses two sets of three legs, pushing airborne off the front, opposite mid and rear leg, then landing on the other triad, repeat.
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Was reading CMU as MCU and was concerned.
I went to CMU, 95 - 97.
While I walked by the Field Robotics Building literally every day, I never saw any cool limb’d robots like this.
I did see:
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Early self-driving trucks (military style) rolling around the park just south of campus.
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A cylindrical robot that rolled around the computer science building. I think it was a computer vision project. It would quietly announce things. (“I see a door.” “I see a corner.”)
At least three 6 legged derpfest can make it over small bumps.
Speaking of 1980’s robots…
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