Walkin8r
$URL: svn+ssh://mrwhat@ssh.boim.com/home/mrwhat/svn/Walker/trunk/README.html $
$Id: README.html 427 2014-08-23 20:42:39Z mrwhat $

Mr. What's Theo Jansen Walking Linkage

This folder contains source code for solving the locations of nodes of a Theo Jansen walking linkage, through its cycle, and Octave (MATLAB) code to plot this data. JansenCycle.gif is an animation of these plots.

This drawing will help explain my conventions for naming parts of the linkage:

I have started a trac site for this project. Managing trac at Dreamhost is proving to be a challenge, so it is a little rough right now. I have not figured out a way to allow a generic guest user while having authenticated users who can modify the site. As a temporary solution, I may need to ask you to login as user:anon, with a blank password.

Favorite Jansen Linkage Configurations

After changing optimizer to try to stay from known locked configurations, configuration B was investigated, with this orbit. Although the lock/sticking issues were reduced with respect to configuration A, which was used to build the initial prototype robot, it was still an issue.


The optimizer was changed again to give a weight to how far the CH link comes to the B-axis, and configuration D, with this orbit, was chosen for the next trial.
Configuration A was used to build a demonstration robot. The initial linkage print was motorized, and then used to build a sucessful demonstration remote-control robot.
Configuration D was used to build a laser-cut version of the robot.
Remote control is by Bluetooth from Android.


In February, 2014, I re-wrote the optimizer code to have a little less flexibility. This gave more stable optimization results. It tends to converge to an overoptimized solution, with a very wide stance and small, triangular step paths. However, if I set the steps small, it passes through some nice looking configurations on the way. I am currently revising drawings to cut this latest configuration, Configuration E, on the new Quelab laser cutter.

Instructions on Building parts and making plots

as seen in an Intel promotional video

Other Linkages investigated


Last modified: 140518
      Name                    Last modified      Size  Description
Parent Directory - Drawings/ 2018-01-04 10:04 - img/ 2016-10-26 08:11 - WalkerTrunk/ 2015-09-29 12:18 - Jansen13.zip 2014-08-23 13:54 849K BuildingLC.html 2014-08-23 13:46 4.6K BuildingLCQ.html 2014-05-18 08:57 22K Favorites/ 2014-02-27 14:43 - BuildingLCX.html 2014-02-11 08:30 17K Building.html 2014-01-30 08:03 4.9K LegAssemblyLC.html 2014-01-30 07:32 9.9K DriveMountAssemblyLC..> 2014-01-21 06:46 10K Jansen12.zip 2013-12-21 12:29 3.8M Attic/ 2013-12-16 09:17 - Jansen12Base.zip 2013-12-16 08:58 705K PartsPrep3D.html 2013-11-07 15:57 3.8K Building3D.html 2013-11-07 15:57 2.9K MainAssembly3D.html 2013-11-07 10:22 3.1K Klann.html 2013-10-22 13:04 4.0K Ghassaei.html 2013-10-22 13:04 1.1K SVNAttic/ 2013-09-27 05:30 - KlannLinkage.png 2013-09-27 05:10 15K GhassaeiLinkage.png 2013-09-27 05:10 5.2K JansenLinkages.png 2013-09-09 17:08 18K parametric_involute_..> 2013-09-06 13:38 18K BL_4WD.apk 2013-08-25 10:09 469K JansenLinkagesRender..> 2013-08-20 06:26 67K opt14/ 2013-08-16 06:07 - Klann.zip 2013-05-18 09:56 192K KlannOrbit3.gif 2013-05-18 08:22 1.9M GhassaeiOrbit.gif 2013-05-15 07:18 3.5M klannOpt2a.gif 2013-05-07 10:10 2.5M klannOpt2.gif 2013-05-07 10:10 2.5M klannOpt1.gif 2013-05-07 05:11 2.6M KlannCycle.gif 2013-05-04 09:43 3.1M JansenCycle.gif 2013-04-27 06:38 5.3M