Chicken walker mechs and robots

[Shinova]

Are there any advantages to the backwards chicken-leg-style over the human-style one in mechs, robots, and any sci-fi bipedal machine?

[Covenant]

Are there any advantages to the backwards chicken-leg-style over the human-style one in mechs, robots, and any sci-fi bipedal machine?

I would think it's a lot less stable. I played around with those old old TESB toys from back in the day, and the chickenwalker had a funky gait. By comparison we already have very basic bipedal robots like Asimo that can do a lot of things, like go up stairs, so I can't imagine there being an actual use to an over-engineered thing like the backwards jointed legs. Maybe it would be easier to lower the canopy section to the ground, and therefore dismount more easily or compensate for a low-ceiling like in a landing bay or something. But as far as scouting goes, it seemed to me that the movie-depiction of the Juggernaut was probably faster than the AT-ST, and a lot more useful in a situation like Hoth, and that was using just basic ol' wheels.

Even in a context where they're understood to work at all, like Star Wars, they get tripped up by logs and shit, and generally seem to be a big pain in the ass. Normal cruddy man-legs are, at least, more basic. They're just hinged pillars that you allow your weapon platform to ease itself forwards on.

[Coalition]

The only advantages that I can see is that for a chicken walker you can armor the ankle and hip from the front much better. Of course, the counter is that a human style can be better armored at the knee.

That might be the only advantage is that you can protect more of your joints from frontal attacks in a chicken walker.

[Lord of the Abyss]

It might be more agile; the flip side of being less stable. And being already flexed, it's better set up for a fast jump. Of course, that only matters for near-man-sized or smaller robots, not huge mechs.

[Covenant]

It might be more agile; the flip side of being less stable. And being already flexed, it's better set up for a fast jump. Of course, that only matters for near-man-sized or smaller robots, not huge mechs.

Thing is, it's LESS agile, since the knee joint is all fucked up due to the way it has to deal with those heavier amounts of stress. A forward-knee has the advantages of more ranges of motion, which makes it more agile, and sturdier, and so on. Check this image--how much left-right pivot do you think those knee joints have?



The issue with chicken walkers is primarily that they are good leg mounts for mounting midway through the thing's body. In Sci-fi you generally have the torso and leg area mounted seperately, but for large things like dinosaurs, there's a relatively large amount of the leg's mass mounted directly in the center of the object.

Smaller things, like chickens for example, have a more pronounced bend in their leg than T-Rex does, but they both have the same general leg shape--the T-Rex is just more conventional looking because it's legs are more loadbearing, and it can't afford to stay that bent. Do a google search for 'chicken skeleton' and then compare it to a T-Rex skeleton to get what I mean.

It's just not a good design for a heavy thing like a robot. However, it's fine if you have four chicken legs. Check out this video of a totally functional walking robot getting kicked around and self-adjusting on the fly.

The Famous Whirring Mule

[Admiral Valdemar]

How about a not 100% chicken walker version, like Starscream, who had a digitigrade lower leg, rather than the whole leg be reversed, as it were?

[Beowulf]

In most cases where you see chicken-style walkers, they're actually digitigrade. For example, check out the AT-ST. It's got a hip, then a knee in front of the hip, then a ankle well back of the knee, then the various foot bones going down to the ground. The main difference between animals that walk like birds, and animals that walk like us (on occasion), is that the hips often end up reversed. That video where you see the robotic mule doesn't really show a chicken type leg at all. It's more like a normal animal. The front legs are analogous to an arm.

[Admiral Valdemar]

Yeah, though with the new movie Starscream, the hip and thigh down to the knee are typical of humanoid forms, while the "ankles" are like a dog leg. I suppose given the size, it would help for stooping in small places in this instance and for perching.