Big Dog Exercise 1

i)      If engineered or programmed badly, BigDog would fall over. Watch the full video again, and describe how BigDog’s legs move while walking– ie. what is the sequence of leg movements for one complete step? Use the terms BL, BR, FL, and FR for the back-left, back-right, front-left and front-right legs.

when the man kicked BigDog, the front legs crossed over while the back legs spread out. This action alternated in every step, where the front legs would spread while the back legs crossed, and vice-versa. This is to enable it to balance.

ii)     Explain how this sequence of movements manages to balance BigDog’s body weight.
When there is a bigger surface area, there will be more stability. Animals in real life cannot spread all 4 legs at the same time to have the biggest surface area for the most stability, when kicked. Their diagonal         legs move in the same direction at the same time. Therefore the biggest surface area an animal can get, to balance itself is by spreading the front legs while the back legs become crossed. The centre of gravity area will be area, and that would keep BigDog from falling over.

My Animation




This is the animation i did for my big dog. After understanding the concept of the balance, i had to follow what my teacher did in class to complete this. However, at certain times, i had to stop and think if this looks realistic, and would a real animal try to balance itself this way if it were kicked. I learnt that when the front 2 legs are spread, the back legs have to cross. Or in other words, diagonal legs have to move the same direction for stability. 

Overall, i was satisfied with my work, and i felt that it imitated the video that we had to look at, very well.