British YouTuber James Bruton wanted to build a giant walking robot from Star Wars – and ride around on it on his friend's tennis court. "My goal is to have something people would click on," he says.
To make it happen, he needed to build four powerful legs for the so-called At-At – which famously first appeared in The Empire Strikes Back – that he could control with some precision.
"I don't want something that's massive and wobbly," he explains, justifiably.
And so Bruton came up with an intricate system of motors and gears, to function as servos, moving parts whose position can be monitored and controlled.
Once finished, he filmed himself dressed as a Stormtrooper, riding the At-At around. "It's pretty slow," he admits.
