I would certainly believe that if the public and other roboteers call it a walker, it's a walker.
I would certainly believe that if the public and other roboteers call it a walker, it's a walker.
Just stumbled across this thread. I'm BIG in favour of keeping the 2 independent DOF ruleset to get the full 100% weight limit increase. This is especially key in the featherweights. Putting 13.6kg machines against a 27.2kg machine is a huge mismatch especially when spinning weapons are brought into the equation.
I do have designs for a feather walker that fits the rule and with my 3D printing business taking off this year I plan to print out a few prototype designs to determine how feasible it is.
If people are interested in looking at alternate rules packages, here's the SPARC has an optional rule where non-wheeled robots that don't classify as true walkers (typically referred to as shufflers- See Son of Whyachi, Pitter Patter, etc...) get a 50% weight bonus. Things like the Jansen mechanism would classify as a shuffler in that system. That ruleset has been used at NERC events for quite a few years and it has worked quite well.
I would certainly agree that only true walkers should get the full extra weight allowance, but I maintain that other non-wheeled robots deserve some degree of extra weight rather than none at all. I'm completely behind the SPARC ruling, it sounds like a good compromise.
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