GPS-Equipped Strandbeest

Strandbeests are amazing walking mechanisms that use six (sometimes more, sometimes fewer) legs to roam the land. These 'beests were originally conceived of by Dutch artist Theo Jansen, using PVC pipe linkages to roam the beach under wind power. Jansen published the linkage lengths, inspiring others (including myself) to reproduce the ‘beest design, sometimes adding motors and RC control components for human input.

JBV Creative's Strandbeest, however, is a bit different. It employs motors for movement and a GPS receiver for control. This allows the ‘beest’s human minder to input waypoints, flip a switch on the RC transmitter, and follow a pre-determined path.

One might argue that this operation is one step closer to an independent walking mechanism. It wouldn’t seem like a huge stretch to add a camera and AI hardware to enable the 'beest make movement decisions on its own.

JBV Creative's device started out as a small wind-powered prototype. This was modified and scaled up for beach operation with the help of an Elegoo Neptune 3 Max 3D printer, which has a huge 420mm x 420mm x 500mm build volume. This version took 415 hours of 3D-printing time, or well over 17 days. The finished build uses a number of bearings for smooth movement, along with lots of screws, washers, and four lengths of threaded rod.

You can see the final results at the end of the video below, walking along Woodbine Beach in Toronto, Canada. JBV Creative made print files for the little wind-powered version available for purchase if you’d like to construct one yourself!