This almost belongs in Cafe Society, but it doesn’t belong in GQ. So I’lls ask here…
In fictional (duh) giant, human-piloted robotic “Mecha,” what are the most common methods of manually controling the “walking” actions of the Mech’s legs?
This is, of course, in the Mecha who’s operations are partially computer-assisted, where all the pilot does is point the rig in the direction he wants to go and throttles forward, letting the computer decide where and when to move the legs.
And, of course, this is assuming a two-legged Mech.
Well, if the mech is more like a giant suit of powered armor, I guess the pilot would move his legs in a walking fashion, which would tell the machine to move first one leg, than the other, etc. Which would explain how the giant robots do kung fu so well.
It depends on the setting - giant robots are pretty common. In some, the driver does not control the legs individually, just steers the vehicle and it automatically moves the legs. I’ve also seen stories where the legs were worked by foot pedals and/or harnesses that record the movement of the drivers legs. In others, the movements of the mech are controlled by a direct interface with the pilot’s brain, who imagines he’s moving his own legs but is actually moving those of the mecha.
Seems like the most common method is the waldo/walk-it-yourself system.
The amusingly bad Robot Jox uses an unspecified “foot simulator” control. Can’t tell from the flick (at least, I don’t recall) if it’s a case of the pilot’s interpreted brainwaves, or actual leg movements that drive the thing’s motion, though. The pilot’s suspended in a harness above a smooth disk, set in the cockpit floor, and he “walks” over it, to make the Mech walk.
I do recall that torso twisting and arm movements (as well as ranged weapon fire) are controlled by the pilot’s arm movements, in over-sized waldo gloves, with weapon triggers mounted at the fingertips.
And the method used by the four-legged mech is never revealed on camera, though it 'pears to be a case of the offset front and back legs slaved together.
Until it rears up like a horse on its hind legs, of course.
I seem to recall reading something in the “Robotech” (Macross) universe’s reading and gaming material that the Zentraedi battle pods used pedals of some sort… and that it was described as “very tiring, worse than walking.”
In reality, a walking machine would likely have to have its own subprocessors, since trying to control the legs directly with your own wouldn’t work; walking is a complex process involving constant feedback from the legs’ “sensors” as well as your own sense of balance. There’s no way it would work on a forty foot Mech. Balance and walking would have to be automatic, the way it is on a PC Mech game – you simply use the directional controls to steer, and the mech balances itself.
It depends on the series. More games/anime than I can count have used mecha. Yes, in the second episode of Robotech it was mentioned that the veritech used a series of foot pedals and it was fairly complicated.
In say, Mech Warrior(a game), the controls were easy enough to operate with a keyboard, so I doubt they were much more complex in the conceptualized(I don’t want to say actual because they’re not real) mech. Keep in mind that the series of motions used to make mecha walk may seem simple to you as a biped, but they’re incredibly complicated to a computer/machine.
Yeah, that whole “controlled forward fall” thing can be rough on your machinery.
[sub]'Specially if it doesn’t have rubber soles on its feet.[/sub]
As Wang-Ka mentioned, no matter the method, it’d have to be computer assisted, to actually maintain the thing’s balance. I’d think a foot pedal/waldo boots system would really only give you gross foot placement control, with the actual leg movement/bending at the joints being computer controlled, using a series of gyroscopes, or somesuch.
Me, I’d be happy with a gas/brake pedal set up, and leave the walking to the mech, so long’s I get to swing around a 10-ton hatchet and bash the other mechs’ cockpits in.
In Gundam (not that sissy Gundam Wing crap, although they might do the same), I thought that I saw someone who put their hands over big globe things, and the machine would respond to his thoughts or something. It was someone Amuro had to fight/compete with, I think. I THINK, I might just be having retroactive hallucinations, in which case, someone can point me out as being wrong and then the rest of you can ignore me.