Hi all
I've been poking around the BB and thought that people might be interested in this awesome art.
http://www.ted.com/talks/theo_jansen_creates_new_creatures.html
Apologies if the link has already been posted.
Jen (n00bi3st n00b)
*Jaw dropping to the floor"
Oh my goodness! This guy is great! What beautys he produces there... and everything mechanical/pneumatic...
What a perfect time to bring this up: right between the releases of the latest "Terminator" and "Transformers" movies ;D
I think Jansen is over-reaching a bit in calling it "life", but it is extremely awesome art. And incredibly-ingenious engineering.
Ran
wow, that's amazing stuff.. i mean, the guy really has something going there...
Pretty interesting. There's an awful lot of moving parts :o
Incredible engineering. The first thing that popped into my mind was that this is the perfect way for a planetary rover to get around using the power of the planets wind. The whole design is very lightweight. Even a motor powered unit would enable it to move over great distances quickly and more efficiently than a wheel.
We-e-l-l-l, before packing one off to another planet, I'd want to see a couple of them show a little "evolutionary initiative", and spontaneously escape over the dunes 
When I look at the videos, I only see the Crochet Critters frolicking on surfaces that are pretty smooth, flat, firm, and free of obstacles. Unless their little feetsies are a lot heavier than they look, Jansen's animals have a relatively high CG, that can easily get outside their base of support on a fairly modest slope.
I suspect that an attempt to climb a dune against any but the gentlest of downslope breezes would turn them from "artificial animals" into "artificial tumbleweeds" 
Ran
some lead horseshoes and a set of upgraded high torque motors should fix that 