“Let’s make a little table-top beast and train it in stages! The origin of this beast has been created by Theo Jansen. He named it “STRAND-BEEST” and he is dreaming of it shall settle in wild.
Against his dream, we tame it as a table-top beast. You are the master of it. You make it act at your command with simple tools. A paper fan, motor, micro-controller or Infrared remote is used in each stage before the final stage. In the final stage you need only finger action, which may look like using something like Force. I was surprised that BEEST becomes very cute in the final stage.
[video 1: Introduction]
We will train and command BEEST in five stages below(1, 2). You can see these stages briefly in the video above. Stuff used in these stages is listed in Step 11.
Baby BEEST with a pinwheel
Rushing BEEST with DC motors
Dancing BEEST with a microcontroller
Exercised BEEST with an Infrared (IR) remote
Tame BEEST following your finger signal
After the final stage above, three extra stages will be shown. In the first extra stage, Tame BEEST will say hello with a smile and ask you for something. In the second, BEEST listens to your command and follows it. In the third extra, Baby BEEST will evolve in other direction. It will walk or stop outdoors with no training nor command.”_