: Horsies

The picture below is a scale drawing of the life-size mechanical horse that I will soon build. It will stand just over six feet tall at the shoulder. It can be controlled by one operator standing within the frame. The horse will be able to walk and gallop and switch smoothly between the two. I think he should also be able to rear up onto his back legs, but we'll see how heavy he is. The operator can also manipulate the head and neck to make the horse look around.



The whole beast will be made of 3/4" pvc pipe. Most of his joints are just nut and bolt assemblies, but some critical parts will pivot on a smaller diameter wooden dowel. I can post more details of the design if I'm asked about them. Otherwise I'll just do a big ol' post when I build him.

The horse design is largely inspired by Theo Jansen, who makes huge wind-powered kinetic sculptures. You MUST check him out on YouTube. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WcR7U2tuNoY) And watch some of his amazing creatures. He also inspired me in that he's totally out of his mind. He gives a TED talk in which he talks about his machines as if they have evolved as a species and will soon be set free in herds on the beach. I'm trying to cultivate this kind of madness in myself in hopes that brilliant ideas will follow. No dice so far.

I also borrowed heavily from the design of a kinetic horse sculpture on clockworkrobot.com. The guy who runs that website sells a kit to build a paper horse that will walk around and pull a little chariot on battery or solar power. Pretty rad.

Later today I will post a little video of me playing with the head prototype I cooked up so you can get a little idea of the scale of the thing.

-m