Just saw an unbelievable thing on the telly - this dutch guy - Theo Jansen has created a strange kind of automaton - He calls them something like 'beach crawlers' its is totally amazing - if you can try and find the streaming version of the uk tv channel quest 'worlds strangest' the episode is called 'vehicles' . This guy has spent 20 years perfecting these walkers check out links here Although i cant vouch for them myself, as i have just watched the tv show so, just trying to find y'all something on it.
It is bloomin amazing , he is using compressed air in soda bottles as a backup power source (they are wind driven mostly) - but because of that he can 'program' the machines - as he has a power flow that can be diverted as switches - he treats its valves as binary - it is just fascinating, it even knows when it encounters the water and can retreat when it does so - but it is just mabe of bits of plastic tubing, air and little else! - The inventor is a genius - to map the idea of electricty and computing, into an entirely different system, he obviously saw the parallells, magic!
