คำบรรยาย (519)
0:00- [Derek] This is a Strandbeest.
0:01It's a walking skeleton
0:03that's powered only by the wind,
0:05created by Dutch inventor Theo Jansen.
0:08There are no motors and no electronics,
0:10and they're made of
the weirdest materials.
0:14- Tape and glue and snot and screws,
0:16and gets that force to transfer,
0:18is really thrilling to me.
0:20- I mean, now it's on "The Simpsons."
0:24- Uh, is this science or garbage?
0:29- [Derek] But how do they actually work,
0:31and why did he build them?
0:34Well, it all started 34 years ago.
0:36- I promised myself to
spend one year on the tubes.
0:43That got totally out of hand.
0:46(elegant classical music)
1:26- [Derek] Now, Jansen's thinking bigger.
1:29- I hope that that these
animals can survive
1:31all the circumstances here on the beach,
1:33like the storms and
the water and the sand.
1:36Hopefully at the end of
my life, it's that far,
1:38and that they can live on their own.
1:42A new specimen on Earth.
1:45- [Derek] But to achieve this goal,
1:46the beest had to overcome
six major challenges.
1:50The first is that they had
to support their own weight.
1:53- The beginning, I had lots of trouble
1:55with the connections, the joints.
1:57I used Sellotape to connect them.
2:00And it all broke, you know.
2:03- [Derek] As a result,
2:03all the beest could do was lie on its back
2:05and move its legs a little.
2:07Yeah, I can imagine the
first thing I would do
2:10(chuckling) Like, tape is
not a long-term solution.
2:14Yeah, no, it was very short term.
2:15You can look at some of the pictures.
2:19but you mostly see tape everywhere
2:21trying to hold it together.
2:23And so he too realizes this very quickly.
2:25So the first fix to
this challenge is, like,
2:29Much more elegant, much more clean,
2:33- [Derek] Jansen restricted himself
2:35to only a few basic materials.
2:38Still, five more hurdles remained,
2:40the next of which was getting
the beest to walk smoothly.
2:44To do this, Jansen realized that the path
2:46traced out by their foot as it moves
2:48is extremely important,
2:50because if that's wonky
and all over the place,
2:52the beest will likely lose its balance.
2:55But if instead it traces
out a mostly flat surface
2:59well, then the beest
could keep its balance
3:03Now, you can get drastically
different footpaths
3:05by changing the proportions of these tubes
3:08and where they're placed.
3:09Some footpaths might be wonky,
3:12or just about anything in between.
3:15But how do you find the right one?
3:17That's what Jansen wanted to find out.
3:19So in 1990, he wrote a computer program
3:22that could compute the footpath
3:23for any given combination of proportions.
3:27Now, you might think,
3:28"Just have the computer
3:29go over trillions of possible options
3:30and then pick the best one."
3:33But that doesn't work.
3:35- Then my computer would be on
3:36for a hundred thousand years, yeah.
3:38So that's why I use this evolution method
3:42where you can come there a lot faster.
3:46- [Derek] So, Jansen ran
a simulation that started
3:49with 1,500 different
combinations of proportions,
3:52resulting in 1,500 different footpaths.
3:55Now, none of these curves
3:56had a great flat surface at the bottom,
3:58but some were slightly
more flat than others.
4:01Those combinations would then reproduce
4:03and multiply with slight changes
4:06into 1,500 new combinations.
4:08This evolutionary process went
on for months, day and night,
4:12until, by the end of it,
4:14these 13 holy numbers came out.
4:17That's how he describes it.
4:19They describe the proportions
and placements of all tubes
4:22so that when you put them all together
4:24and start rotating the
crankshaft right here,
4:26they give you this footpath.
4:31that just about every
Strandbeest has traced out
4:36If you then connect
different legs together
4:38where each leg is out of phase
of the others by 120 degrees,
4:42then you get this continuous smooth walk.
4:46And those 13 holy numbers?
4:48Well, I guess you could see that
4:50as the genetic code of the Strandbeest.
4:52- And the reason you
offset them by 120 degrees
4:55is so that there's always feet
4:57that are in contact with the ground,
4:58which gives you this smooth ride.
5:00- [Derek] And getting
this right is important.
5:03In 2016, my friend and original
MythBuster, Adam Savage,
5:06built his own pedal-powered Strandbeest.
5:09- I found the movement of
his robots so compelling,
5:13because it felt like looking
at a different kind of nature.
5:16There's a tremendous amount
of force on the axle,
5:19and that he builds all
this stuff with, like,
5:21tape and glue and snot and screws
5:23and gets that force to transfer
5:26is really thrilling to me.
5:28To be honest, I built
one at the Exploratorium
5:31in their parking lot, over three days,
5:33and for two days, I was getting it wrong.
5:36- [Derek] Adam tried all kinds
of fixes to get it to walk,
5:41- But I remember building the Strandbeest
5:43talking about something
I was getting wrong,
5:44and I'm tuning him out, tuning
him out, tuning him out.
5:47And then at four o'clock
between days two and three,
5:50four o'clock in the morning,
5:51I woke up and I was like,
(gasps) that guy's right.
5:56And he saw it on the
invitation to the build.
6:00He saw that I had missed, in
my translation of a drawing,
6:04I had missed one of the linkages,
6:06and that I had this length
6:08of the center triangle linkage off,
6:10and I needed to push it out.
6:12And it was like night and day.
6:14I came in, fixed that thing,
6:16cut all the way up the
middle of this metal bod,
6:18extended everything by an inch,
6:19and all of a sudden it just walked.
6:21It was like, when you get it
right, that thing just moves.
6:25- Ah, yes, yes! (whoops and laughs)
6:30- Did you ever give that guy a heads up
6:32and be like, "Hey, yeah."
6:34- I did, but not till the end of the day.
6:36- I didn't wanna give him the satisfaction
6:38while I was still working.
6:41That's my ego. (laughs)
6:44- [Derek] But Adam's beest
lived in an exhibition.
6:47(wind and sand whooshing)
6:51Jansen's beests, on the other hand,
6:52spend the entire summer on the beach,
6:54where they're exposed to the elements.
6:57So all the remaining hurdles
6:58are about surviving and
conquering their natural habitat.
7:02One major challenge is dealing with sand.
7:05- [Casper] And the sand is very fluffy,
7:07so it's very easy for them to get stuck,
7:09especially if it's a stick.
7:10It would just bury itself in,
7:12and then it cannot move,
7:15- [Derek] To prevent this from happening,
7:16the beests evolved feet
specifically adapted to the beach.
7:21- What you can immediately see
7:22is that it's not just a stick
that's poking into the ground.
7:26Instead, you've got this
large sort of surface area.
7:28Then it's much easier for it
to stay on top of the sand.
7:33- [Derek] But they also fulfill
a less obvious function.
7:36- You've got these wires here,
7:39together away with the
larger surface area,
7:41is it provides a lot more contact time
7:44where the foot is basically
in touch with the ground.
7:48So, when this foot is in
touch with the ground,
7:51it can get taken over by another
and taken over by another.
7:54And as a result you get
this very smooth ride,
7:57which is what you're looking for,
7:58to save the structure of the Strandbeest
8:00and not put too much pressure on it.
8:03- [Adam] Because I built
one with tennis shoes,
8:07that having a couple of inches of play
8:11in the linkage between the
final ankle and the tennis shoe
8:17to allow that foot to stay in place
8:20while the linkage got the other
foot up and ready to drop.
8:23And that's apparently
how our walking works
8:27is, you know, it's not a
straight, like, 1, 2, 3,
8:33- [Derek] But the beests
aren't always walking.
8:35I mean, sometimes they're
tied up in the same place
8:39And then, sand poses another major threat.
8:42- If you leave a structure
like this on the beach,
8:44you come back after three weeks
8:46and it's totally covered with sand.
8:50I thought maybe if they
just lift up a little bit,
8:53the sand goes under
there, and that buries.
8:56- [Derek] This is how
flying Strandbeests evolved.
9:00But the beests also face more
violent threats, like storms.
9:04So, how can they increase
their odds of survival
9:09Well, for regular animals,
9:11it's typically easier to
survive harsh conditions
9:15And the same holds true for Strandbeests.
9:17- And the idea behind this animal
9:19was that they would survive
the storm maybe better
9:25because if you see an
individual, like over there,
9:29if you put it on the beach,
9:30it blows over very easy.
9:32So as an individual,
they wouldn't survive.
9:35But as a group holding each other,
9:37they are stronger in strong winds.
9:41- [Derek] This also allows
9:43for a different type of Strandbeest
9:45- One that can be pulled.
9:46And the big ideas actually
that this would be pulled
9:49by the other Strandbeest.
9:51Now, I asked Theo if I can
pull it, and he said yes.
9:54So, we can grab it right here.
9:58There's some hand markings,
10:00and then now I should be the motor,
10:02and his crawler should come behind me.
10:06Oh man, this is cool.
10:10Walking a Strandbeest up a Dutch Beach.
10:17- Strandbeests are in
a never-ending battle
10:19against the elements.
10:21But they can help each
other by working together.
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11:43and now back to Strandbeests.
11:46But if too much wind is a
problem, too little is as well.
11:51- So right now you can actually see
11:52one of the current fatal
flaws of the Strandbeest.
11:55They walk when there's wind,
11:57but as soon as the wind dies down,
11:59the animal basically dies down as well.
12:01And so this is one of the challenges
12:03that Theo is actually
trying to solve right now.
12:05Ah, there it goes again.
12:07- [Derek] This is similar
12:08to a challenge that life too has faced.
12:11See, you can't always rely
12:12on the currents of the wind or water
12:14to take you where you need to go.
12:17is to stock up on energy
when it's plentiful,
12:20and then use it later when you need it.
12:24So you need two things,
12:26a way to store energy,
12:27and muscles that can
use this stored energy.
12:31Now, to collect energy,
12:32you've got this sail which
is moved by the wind,
12:35and as it moves, it turns this crankshaft,
12:38which then pushes this piston here,
12:40and it can store pressurized
air in this plastic bottle.
12:44- Just like a bicycle pump.
12:46- [Casper] Do you know
sort of what pressures
12:48- It went up to five yesterday.
12:50So, quite a pressure.
12:53- They explode when
there are 10 bars, yeah.
12:56Well, once I had a bottle,
12:58and there was a a piston in there,
13:01and it flew just next to my ear
13:05through the window on the
back, so it broke the window.
13:08So that was quite a happening.
13:15(chuckling) That's a close call.
13:19- [Derek] So, now that you
have a way to store energy,
13:21you just need a way to use it.
13:25- And if you connect the
pressure with a pump like this,
13:30So you have a sort of muscle.
13:34Muscle is nothing but an object
13:37which becomes longer
or shorter on command.
13:41So, we have pulling muscles,
13:44and the Strandbeest, we
have pushing muscles.
13:48- [Derek] This has
allowed some Strandbeests
13:51others to walk by
pushing themselves along,
13:54and one to wag its tails.
13:57One thing you might notice
is that with each challenge,
14:01the Strandbeests become more
and more like real animals.
14:05It's as if their process is mimicking life
14:08and following a similar
evolutionary pattern.
14:11And in a way, this is true,
14:13because they have to overcome
many of the same challenges
14:16that animals have had to.
14:17And as life evolved,
14:18it became more and more
aware of its surroundings.
14:22And in at least one case,
14:24it became conscious and self-aware.
14:27But right now, there is
still one big challenge
14:30the beests have to overcome.
14:32- 'Cause they're blind and deaf,
14:34they don't hear very serious,
14:36so imagine that you're blind and deaf,
14:38you can only feel around somehow.
14:40- So, one of the challenges
that the Strandbeests run into
14:43is that they're walking along the water,
14:46and if they accidentally
go in the wrong direction
14:48because they're being carried by the wind,
14:50then they could end up in the water,
14:52and that would be disastrous.
14:54So to fix that, Theo has
been working on a system
14:57that can actually sense
when it's touching the water
15:01with a connection of
brain cells and muscles,
15:05it can then course correct
15:06to go away from the water
back onto the beach.
15:10- And of course it's important to know
15:12that you're close to the sea, right?
15:14That's why I have a a water feeler here.
15:17Oh, great, can you hold it here?
15:19It goes over the ground about this height,
15:22and it sucks in air all the time.
15:25And as soon as it comes into the sea,
15:28it swallows the water
15:29and feels the resistance of the water.
15:32(machine clicking)
It still doesn't work.
15:35Well, I must regret-
15:38(machine rattling)
Oh, now it's working.
15:41I'm so happy.
(crew laughing)
15:46- [Derek] But those senses are only useful
15:47if you can process those inputs,
15:49make a decision on what to do,
15:51and then issue that to your muscles.
15:54Like, when you walk into the water,
15:55you should be able to use your
muscles to correct course.
15:58So what you need is a nervous system,
16:01a sort of brain, if you will.
16:04- This is a nerve cell.
16:06If I take the top off
16:08and if I blow air in here,
16:13the air goes in here and comes outta here.
16:16So this is a connection.
16:17But if I push in this
piston here, it's blocked.
16:21So in fact, which you see
here is only a crank here,
16:29Now I go to operate the
crank here, this air.
16:37So if I blow air in here,
16:39this closes, and no air comes outta here.
16:42If you see this as the output
16:44and this, the input,
16:45the output is opposite from the input.
16:48(upbeat music)
(graphics beeping)
16:53In other words, you can
switch zeros and ones
16:57just like in a computer.
17:05So what you see here
17:06is the beginning of the
brain of the Strandbeest.
17:14- Do you have an idea how
many brain cells you'd need
17:16to be able to make that work
17:18so the animal walks into the water
17:21and is able to turn around?
17:24- 20, something like that.
17:27It's not very complicated.
17:29- The only thing is, here on the beach,
17:30everything is complicated,
17:32because sand creeps into everything
17:35and so, yeah, it's not an easy thing, no.
17:40- [Derek] Over time, the
beests also slowly degrade.
17:43They lose their color,
and parts might break off.
17:47On the scale of the global
microplastic pollution problem,
17:51this effect is small, but
it's certainly not helping.
17:54Fortunately though, almost
all parts of the Strandbeests
17:57are reused, sold as fossils,
18:00or they end up in the graveyard.
18:04It's crazy to think that all
of this has been made possible
18:06by the obsession of one guy
18:08tinkering away year after year.
18:11But why did he do it?
18:14During the late 1980s,
18:15it was becoming clear that
rising levels of carbon dioxide
18:18would warm the planet,
18:20and therefore sea levels would rise
18:22by as much as 2.2 meters by 2100.
18:25And about a third of Jansen's
home country, the Netherlands,
18:29lies below the current sea level,
18:31so rising sea levels pose
a clear and present threat.
18:37So Jansen came up with a solution.
18:39He imagined this sort of
walking skeleton on the beach.
18:43It would be powered by the wind,
18:44and it would kick up sand as it walked.
18:47Then this sand would blow to the dunes,
18:50heightening them and hence
protecting the Netherlands
18:52from the rising sea levels.
18:54He published this idea in de Volkskrant
18:57and called these skeletons Strandbeests.
19:00I don't speak Dutch.
19:04Is it the beach beast?
19:08It's the beach beast.
19:08- (laughs) This is such a wacky idea.
19:12- Who comes up with that?
19:16- [Derek] What started as
an article in a newspaper
19:18turned into much more,
19:20to the point where it's
basically defined Jansen's life.
19:24is it still really about
protecting the Netherlands?
19:26And the answer is no, not really.
19:30It's about a much more human need
19:32that most of us have,
19:33the desire to be remembered
after we're gone.
19:37I mean, it's ominous to
imagine that we'll die
19:39and be forgotten someday,
19:40so a lot of us go to great
lengths to avoid this
19:44by having kids donating
large sums of money
19:47to get a building named after you,
19:48or writing a book, these sorts of ideas.
19:51For Jansen, it's making Strandbeests.
19:54And when they fulfill their final goal
19:57of living independently on the beach,
19:59then, he wrote, "I can
die with peace of mind."
20:04- The only thing is, I don't
have millions of years.
20:07There's the problem a bit.
20:09But maybe I can hypnotize
some young people around here.
20:13There were some people who
were really very, very nice,
20:18and they help me a lot,
20:22to infect them with this Strandbeest virus
20:27- Because people all over the world
20:28are actually using this as well,
20:30so, like, the virus is
spreading, in a way,
20:33or whatever you want to call it.
20:35- [Derek] Thousands of
people all over the world
20:36are incorporating his 13 holy numbers
20:39into their own designs.
20:41From miniature Strandbeests,
to ones you can ride,
20:44to a walking bicycle.
20:45The genetic code of the beests
20:47is spreading all over the world.
20:50- He wants everyone to build one of these,
20:53but I don't think he's
got any ulterior motive
20:55except that he likes
seeing those things go.
20:58And when he makes them go,
20:59he has a set of rules and restrictions,
21:01but he doesn't place those same
restrictions on anyone else.
21:04I think that's really beautiful.
21:06perhaps one day they'll
achieve that ultimate goal.
21:09A new species on earth,
21:11roaming the world's beaches,
21:12kicking up sand all along,
21:15and maybe even protecting some coastlines
21:17from rising sea levels.
21:22♪ It's Strandbeest
driving through the sand ♪
21:26♪ Legs moving like a marching band ♪
21:30♪ Strandbeest, strandbeest ♪
21:32♪ Voices chant and never cease ♪
21:34♪ Strandbeest, strandbeest ♪
21:36♪ Marching to the rhythm's beat ♪
