Memories! I actually scanned the video several times to see if I was in the background on the stairs. I remember seeing this being put though the paces in this space (those were CS offices in the background, I don't think this drive-through exists anymore.) Not sure that I saw Ivan driving the hexapod though.<p>There should be a Robotics Institute technical report about it, I recall Claude Shannon wrote a whimsical poem about the the hexapod.<p>[edit] some context: Ivan was a founder of Evans & Sutherland, a groundbreaking developer of computer graphics systems. From the wikipedia page: "Most of the employees were active or former students, and included Jim Clark, who started Silicon Graphics, Ed Catmull, co-founder of Pixar, John Warnock of Adobe, and Scott P. Hunter of Oracle."<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evans_%26_Sutherland" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evans_%26_Sutherland</a><p>He is also known for Sketchpad, perhaps the first graphical user interface:<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sketchpad" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sketchpad</a>
Oh, that thing. That was mostly Sutherland having fun.<p>It was followed by the OSU Adaptive Suspension Vehicle.[1] This may have been the first walking machine with active computer control. Despite the claims of off-road capabilities, it could at best handle a dirt road with a slight slope. They got it to walk over a log, but that was with 5 legs locked and the operator managing one leg with a joystick.<p>[1] <a href="https://youtu.be/DIiD1JimBXQ" rel="nofollow">https://youtu.be/DIiD1JimBXQ</a>
What is that on the ground that rolls by it, stops by sewer grate, and then rolls some more?<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jrMfU2FtSBk&feature=youtu.be&t=167" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jrMfU2FtSBk&feature=youtu.be...</a>
It's a short video. Everyone should watch it. Not necessarily for the walker, which is somewhat primitive, though probably state-of-the-art for its time. Watch the video for the accompanying commentary.<p>Ivan has such a simple, elegant way of explaining things. In just a few sentences he clearly explained all the key elements of the walker.<p>That's a wonderful pedagogical talent. Another person with such a talent was Richard Feynman.
Wow, it's taken us so long to get (something like) this thing going. 37 years now, and Boston Dynamics is only now in the final steps of productizing v1.
Interesting that they tried to design the walking motion from scratch and ended up with a jittery, jerky mess with each leg moving one by one. I wonder how they would've done if they tried to replicate the walking motion of real six-legged creatures.<p><a href="https://i.imgur.com/tinN5vA.gif" rel="nofollow">https://i.imgur.com/tinN5vA.gif</a>
This looks and sounds like the retro back story side sequences in Lost (with the Japanese professor)!<p>Anyway, awesome work, and amazing to see how long we've been thinking about this stuff IRL