A group of infantrymen should have no problem getting it back upright. Shenanigans moving heavy things is what they do when they get bored but don't have any lower effort mischief to engage in.
Well sure but why would they use it in action aside from the fun factor of seeing this lumbering contraption (and at 1400kg empty with a top speed of 8km/h "lumbering" is putting it midly) flail and fall over every few minutes?
No better than a souped up ATV would. Probably worse, with harder maintenance and more breakdown potential.
> Also, it's worth remembering that this is a prototype, not a finished system.
Doesn't matter, it's the concept itself which is nonsense.
>No better than a souped up ATV would
Big obstacles necessitate some combination of big tires (and all the big heavy parts to turn those without breaking) and massive amounts of suspension travel in order to maintain wheels on the ground (and therefore stability). A legged vehicle of the same weight would be able to carry much larger cargo or go over much rougher terrain because it would simply be able to step through each obstacle rather than roll over it.
>Probably worse, with harder maintenance and more breakdown potential.
Pin and bushings joints aren't exactly maintenance intensive and in "you should have replaced this last year" condition they tend to be more operable rotary power transmission systems. The problem is figuring out how to control the damn thing. Fairly recent advances in programming techniques (ML, basically) have resulted in new solutions for this problem which has resulted in renewed interest in legged systems.
>Doesn't matter, it's the concept itself which is nonsense.
There's a reason people keep trying to make legged designs viable. They're very attractive for navigating rough terrain because they offer the potential to do equivalent work with a smaller (and therefore cheaper and simpler to maintain) vehicle. It just turns out that every time someone has tried to build one the technology isn't quite there yet.
Not at all. Look at the kind of terrain that recent Boston Dynamics bots can handle. The concept is solid, they just didn't have the technology yet to make it practical. (And we're still working on it.)
You sound like someone who doesn't understand the concept of context.
> Try driving any wheeled vehicle over terrain that's filled with rocks and boulders; it can't be done.
Neither can driving the Walking Truck over that same terrain is my point.
> But I can easily walk over it, climb through fissures, etc.
…
Putting crap on the back of humans who are pretty good at navigating bad terrain is exactly one of my suggestions?
>Neither can driving the Walking Truck over that same terrain is my point.
Why do you believe this? You're stating it as fact, and it sounds like BS to me.
8kph is a gentle jog, hardly lumbering.