Walker Race

[Frank]

The goal is not just to build a machine that walks, but to make one that can climb over rocks and handle just about whatever you can throw at it. Whose design can cross the course the fastest?

Walker Obstacle Course

Frank

Rating:
Filesize: 105.78 kB
Comments: 0
Ratings: 1

RULES
- The walker must fit inside the inner border of one of the starting blocks. They both contain about the same area, your choice. If they seem too small, say so and I may switch it to the outer border.
- No extreme jumping, flying, hovering, gliding, or any kind of propulsion other than feet on the ground.
- With the exception of only one, optional stabilizer, there shall be no spawning and all geometries must have only slider values. Non-geometry objects such as hinges may have non-slider values, though I couldn't fathom what you'd need them for.
- Simple "revolving feet" walkers, such as StephenAlvarez's upright quadruped, do not count as walking machines.


Judging:
- I will give each entry several test runs to learn how it behaves. When I feel that I can pilot your walker skillfully, I will take the average time of three more runs and the total number of times I had to rescue the vehicle from getting flipped or broken in those runs.
- Entries will be ranked first by how many times they needed to be rescued. Among machines with equal rescues, average time will decide rank. Extreme time differences may cause me to make an exception, placing an extremely slow machine behind a much faster one that only needed one or two more rescues.
- If the vehicle gets in trouble, I will try to get it to right itself under its own power first, and if successful, it doesn't count as a rescue. Self-righting capabilities are very beneficial.
- If there is an obstacle that the vehicle simply cannot get over at all, it will not get a place in the leader board.
- The upright starting box is somewhat behind the horizontal starting box. I will move all walkers to the same starting line during testing. Also, I will not try to circumvent any part of the gondola ride, whether the vehicle is capable of it or not. I won't start moving until it has left the track.

[Frank]

LEADER BOARD
Empty for now. First place is wide open for you!

1st Place: Nxdt's gray quadruped

Walker Contest Entry

Nxdt

Rating:
Filesize: 108.21 kB
Comments: 0
Ratings: 1

Time:112.95 seconds. Rescues: 0


2nd Place:StephenAlvarez's skipping biped

Walker Contest Entry 2 by Stephen

StephenAlverez

Rating:
Filesize: 92.34 kB
Comments: 0
Ratings: 1

Time: 154.45 seconds. Rescues: 0


3rd Place: davidz40's green quadruped

Walker contest entry

davidz

Rating:
Filesize: 93.95 kB
Comments: 4
Ratings: 3

Time: 177.59 seconds. Rescues: 0


4th Place: StepehAlvarez's biped

Finally, a good entry on my part...

StephenAlverez

Rating:
Filesize: 91.53 kB
Comments: 0
Ratings: 1

Time: 186.94 Rescues: 0

My Favorite: StephenAlvarez's skipping biped

[davidz40]

Walker contest entry

davidz

Rating:
Filesize: 93.95 kB
Comments: 4
Ratings: 3

[StephenAlverez]

Stephen Alverez..​.. walker contest

StephenAlverez

Rating:
Filesize: 94.49 kB
Comments: 2
Ratings: 1

You should say that you can't use the inertia multiplier should not be allowed since this is what you can do.

[Frank]

Davidz40
We're off to a good start! Interesting spring in the legs, which can be good at high speed, but it often catches a toe going the wrong way and shoots itself backwards. I didn't bother to test if its stabilizer did a whole lot of good, but I think they're usually more a hindrance than help on anything with a slope. Never had to rescue it at all, very reliable in that sense.
Times: 169.28, 200.99, 162.49 Average: 177.59 seconds

StephenAlvarez
I'd hardly call that a walker. Not that it fits the rules anyway, but I'm making some modifications to the rules because of that.

[StephenAlverez]

Than I will rethink my design and exploit another loophole. Like I always do! Or not...

[StephenAlverez]

How about this?

This time it's serious...

StephenAlverez

Rating:
Filesize: 91.53 kB
Comments: 0
Ratings: 1

I would call this less of a walker than my other, so I'm just going to do whats easiest until it's not worth it. And can I upload more than one walker?

[Frank]

Slider values only on geometries. That means your walker needs to work with reasonable friction.

[Nxdt]

Okay heres my entry.

Walker Contest Entry

Nxdt

Rating:
Filesize: 108.21 kB
Comments: 0
Ratings: 1

Use the arrows to control it.

[StephenAlverez]

OOOH, I got geometries and motors backwards. I will work on a better solution, again.

[StephenAlverez]

Here we go, this is fo-shiz.


EDIT: I guess the scene didn't show, so here it is.

Finally, a good entry on my part...

StephenAlverez

Rating:
Filesize: 91.53 kB
Comments: 0
Ratings: 1

[Frank]

I want to make it clear that you can both modify existing entries and have multiple entries. Build/fix/tweak/discover fatal flaw/rebuild is a respectable design method in my book.

Nxdt
Clever with the jointed body that absorbs bounces, but the thing is still kinda bouncy. It broke a leg near the end in two out of three runs, but still made about the same time and never needed rescuing on the official runs, although it fell off the gondola a couple of times when I was practicing.
Times: 110.53, 114.85, 113.46 Rescues: 0

[FruitMonger]

Hey, do we get extra points if the walker has weapons ? Cause I have one walker that I might enter, and it already has a weapon on it. It just doesn't look as good without it, and it's not as comical without it.

[Frank]

No bonus for weapons, though I may make a course that needs them in the future.

[Frank]

StephenAlvarez
Ah, now I see it. I noticed it on phunbox, but you hadn't appeared to post it, so I let it be. Man, that thing has some backwards-jumping issues. It happened to cooperate with me pretty well for the first two time runs, but it was really balky on the third run. I think this issue might be tied to the foot design or suspension. I was impressed with its ability to recover broken legs, but unimpressed with its trouble on slopes.
Time: 169.16, 150.24, 241.43 Rescues: 0

[StephenAlverez]

StephenAlvarez
Ah, now I see it. I noticed it on phunbox, but you hadn't appeared to post it, so I let it be. Man, that thing has some backwards-jumping issues. It happened to cooperate with me pretty well for the first two time runs, but it was really balky on the third run. I think this issue might be tied to the foot design or suspension. I was impressed with its ability to recover broken legs, but unimpressed with its trouble on slopes.
Time: 169.16, 150.24, 241.43 Rescues: 0

The suspension was originally real, but that created to many problems, and it take to much to take it out, so I just replaced one of the foot joints with a fixate. 169.16 was my lowest? I got it down to 150 something.

[Nxdt]

Your lowest was 150.24.

[Rrobba]

Walkers aren't my speciality but I might give this a go.

[Frank]

Hey, if it can get across at all, it's a pretty nice walker. Go for it! I may post a guide to a couple of good walking mechanisms and how to modify their strides and stuff at some point.

[RaRaMalum]

Frank wouldn't it be nice to have a autonomous class like your earlier contest?
I'm not sure I'd enter either way.

[Frank]

Hmm.... I don't want to change the existing rules unless I really need to. Autonomy could be part of some other contest down the line.

[RaRaMalum]

I made a quick robot that solves the track by itself. It doesn't walk because its a proof of concept(PoC ).

Just press play

Walkerconte­st proof of concept

RaRaMalum

Rating:
Filesize: 112.19 kB
Comments: 0
Ratings: 1

[Nxdt]

It often falls of the gondela part unfortuantly. Might want to make it so it move back slightly when it hits the release bar thingy.

[RaRaMalum]

Strange I teste it 10 times to be sure.
I used algodoo 1.7.1

[Chronos]

He's right, Rara. I've had it fall of the gondola twice (though it landed where it needed to the second time). I only tested it twice, though, so...