Help My Students Understand Robotics: 4 Sticks Joining and Walking

[Persefone]

Hello, I have some students--my part-time job as a teacher--who are know in their first year at high school. They asked me a question about how some sticks drawn in http://www.sodaplay.com were getting well connected and also can move back and forth amazingly. There is no doubt that my students join their school robotics club.
I am their teacher anyway, you know, it is really such a shame if I couldn't answer their questions properly.

Can you help by explaining a simple 4 sticks joining at one end and will walk on the ground by 4 other ends ? Are they made by any software ?

Thanks a lot,

 

[FredGarvin]

Is there any way you can rephrase your question? I really am not getting the gist of it. Are you wondering how the Sodaplay software works or are you wondering how to make an actual robot work?

 

[Persefone]

I meant to know how those sticks could walk

 

[brewnog]

What, in the computer program or in real life?

 

[DaveC426913]

Follow this link: http://www.sodaplay.com/constructor/how/works.htm
It explains what the sticks are doing.

In a nutshell, each stick is a spring and it lengthens and contracts at a specific rate. If you coordinate these at just the right frequencies you will get components that act very much like muscles. Combine these components in a coordinated way, and you can get locomotion.