But, to be frank, gliders are fun in their own right and so are these walking gadgets. Models Following McGeer, we have several 2D kneed walking simulations. Dan Jung, and undergraduate in our lab at Cornell, created a Working Model simulation based on the parameters and initial conditions that had yielded stable walking in the first two simulations. Art Kuo in Michigan cleaned up the graphics on Dan's simulation. Click on the picture to see a simulation.
Gravity points slightly to the right.
Mike Coleman with others has analyzed a 3D version of McGeer's rimless wheel, has invented the first walking toy that can't stand still, and has post-predicted on the computer that such a device should work. We have also built the first two-legged passive dynamic walker with knees. Here is a collection of some video and animation clips from our lab. The Quicktime versions should be playable on Macintosh systems with MoviePlayer and also on Windows95 and WindowsNT systems. Quicktime Player is available for free from Apple .