1945 patent for a one-legged hopping tank

Peter Steinkamp, who makes neat little walker devices, sent me this 1945 patent for a one-legged hopping tank. Imagine a battlefield full of these things bouncing around.

One of the objects of this invention is to provide a tank having an extensible leg capable of imparting a series of vertical oscillations to the tank, and having means to vary the angle of inclination of the leg to obtain directional movement of the tank.
Another of the objects of the invention is to provide a tank which is adapted to traverse difficult terrain.
Yet another object of the invention is to provide a tank which is propelled in such a manner that its progress is intermittent, thereby rendering it a difficult target. Still another object is to provide a tank provided with means whereby the direction of its course may be rapidly changed, thereby rendering it a difficult target.

Mark Frauenfelder is the founder of Boing Boing and the editor-in-chief of MAKE and Cool Tools. Twitter: @frauenfelder. Come and hear Mark speak at the ALA conference in Chicago on July 1.

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Anonymous

Alternate title: Megaman Baddies IRL.
IWood

By falling over and exploding.

Brilliant!
Marja

WWII tanks were not designed to fire on the move, whether they used tracks, wings, or hopping feet.
Dungeonbrownies

If we ever declare war on the moon, Id imagine this’d be a nice design.

also, can i say it?
I will… =3

ahem-

I for one welcome our one-legged overlords.
Anonymous

As long as all battles are fought on perfectly flat ground – great idea!
roryrhorerton

Yet another object of the invention is to fill the interior with the vomit of its passengers, thereby rendering it a difficult target to enter.
Daemon

Yet another object was to create a vehicle that injured it’s own crew before the enemy had the chance to do so.
pinehead

1942, actually. Not a big deal, generally, but because of WWII, dates give a better context as to why this harebrained device was patented in the first place.
Chuck

The kangaroos will get it working if they ever evolve to realize our level of intelligence.

Of course, if that happens, we’ll be screwed.
sausagebarrage

This looks like the first step in the direction of making the “mule” in Bruce Serling’s book Heavy Weather.
Anonymous

Now, if you put an articulating tripod at the end of the leg – reinforce the hell out it, make the entire structure out of carbon fiber and ensure that opposite guns fire simultaneously, you might be able to resubmit the patent
CapnSoggy

This just proves how much pot they were smoking at the Army R&D section back then.
Good on them!
Chrs

Turns out to be a remarkably complicated balance problem. And then Raibert made it happen.

http://www.ai.mit.edu/projects/leglab/robots/3D_hopper/3D_hopper.html

Admittedly, it’s small, uses offboard power and a lot of near-intuitive-leap control principles, but the damn thing worked! Back in 1984.
Alex_M

Was this intended to make the enemy die of laughter?

Anyway.. It’s a pretty damn crazy idea even for the crazy ideas that turn up in wartime (like Project Habakkuk).

Somehow I don’t think a lightweight, hopping tank would do so well against the 88 mm gun on the 1942 Tiger tank.
Anonymous

This is just an early iteration of the Cobra POGO vehicle:
http://www.yojoe.com/vehicles/87/pogo/
konshuss

i wonder what kept this thing from coming into being, complete with b&w footage of these things knocking into the landscape like a hammer.
Marja

If the thing worked at all, I’m sure it would give its crews some nasty bruises, and motion sickness.
Duffong

And yet another object of the invention is to baffle engineers should it ever fall into enemy hands.
Marja

Yes, but the standard procedure, even for cold war tanks, was to make short halts to fire the gun.
Brainspore

Because those three-legged tanks that H.G. Wells envisioned were just too darn easy.
Takuan

http://www.post-gazette.com/healthscience/20010528bowgohealth2.asp
Ocker3

Actually Marja, the Sherman (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M4_Sherman), besides having a propensity to brew up (catch on fire) very quickly after it’s armour was penetrated, had a gyroscopically stablised gun, giving it better accuracy when firing on the move than it’s contemporaries.
ernie

The first thing I thought of was this classic MIT robot you’ve seen a million times.

http://www.ai.mit.edu/projects/leglab/robots/monopod/monopod.html
ernie

Erm, This robot. is the one I thought of :)

http://www.ai.mit.edu/projects/leglab/robots/3D_hopper/3D_hopper.html

video:

http://www.ai.mit.edu/projects/leglab/robots/3D_hopper/3D_hopper_hopping.mpeg
denkbert

I wonder how those things would have coped with the recoil from the guns …