In the world of kinetic art, the Strandbeest, crafted by Dutch artist Theo Jansen, stands out as a wind-powered sculpture with intricate leg mechanisms that gracefully traverse sandy terrains. However, its design is primarily suited for flat landscapes. With the diverse topography of urban environments, particularly stairs, there's a compelling challenge to evolve the Strandbeest's mechanical design for multi-terrain adaptability. This adaptation not only pushes kinetic art boundaries but also offers practical applications, potentially guiding robotic designs for varied terrains.
Our project proposal is focused on addressing the challenges of a classical Strandbeest mechanism by developing a modified Strandbeest (Figure 1). This evolved design would maintain its ability to walk on flat surfaces while also gaining the capability to ascend stairs efficiently. To traverse flat surfaces and ascend stairs, our design utilizes a five-legged Strandbeest with the use of the Jansen mechanism. Four regular Jansen Mechanism legs and an out-of-phased leg situated on the anterior end of the Strandbeest enable it to climb stairs. The fifth, out-of-phase leg has a modified linkage length to have a higher step height to enable stair climbing.
Figure 1: CAD of a modified Strandbeest designed for traversing flat surfaces and ascending stairs
Figure 2 and 3 below show the kinematic analyses of the regular Jansen mechanism leg and the modified leg with a higher step height. For the modified leg, the distalmost anterior link is designed to be half the length of the regular Jansen mechanism to achieve the motion profile needed for a higher step height.
Figure 2: Motion profile of regular Jansen Mechanism generated using MotionGen
Figure 3: Motion profile of modified Jansen Mechanism generated using MotionGen
Below is a video demonstration of the physical prototype of our modified Strandbeest project.