11 August 2024
It appears to be like like a skeletal crusing ship and in a manner it’s. Besides that it walks. Like a large bug.
Strandbeests are created by Dutch physicist turned artist, Theo Jansen, who has labored on them since 1990. He named them strandbeest which accurately means “seashore animal” in Dutch. They’re native to the Netherlands.
Strandbeests are powered solely by wind. Some newer “species” can use the wind to retailer compressed air in onboard PET bottles — a wind abdomen for the animal — which is later used for energy.
Yearly Jansen experiments in summer season and designs new ones in winter in a consistently evolving course of. Although the beests have existed for greater than 30 years they grew to become recognized solely after he posted movies on YouTube a few decade in the past. Since then the beests have been on tour. They got here to the U.S. in 2014-2016.
And but they continue to be largely unknown, particularly to folks like me who stay removed from the seashore. I discovered about them final week on this 11-minute video that tells their story.
Go to Theo Jansen’s Strandbeest web site for extra data. His Regularly Requested Questions are particularly helpful.
p.s. In case you’re curious, two animations present how the legs transfer.
Motion of a single leg. Discover that one bar is fastened and the smallest bar rotates.
Motion of 6 legs:
The inexperienced circle exhibits the rotating axle that powers the legs.
