3DSTAR WARS: AT-ST (all terrain scout walker) - Practical Design Exercise

Berticus

Long time, no post on my part.

I've missed this place. A quick update on me (for those that even remember ): I'm in school for mechanical engineering in the snowy state of Utah. I still like modeling and I still like this place.

Project: I will be modeling the AT-ST for practical use (yeah right!), durability, and ease of manufacture.

Tools: SolidEdge, pencil and paper, math.

Timeline
1. Reference material. (Complete)
2. Process, system, and subsystem planning and overviews. (Complete)
('2a. Dimensioning (Assembly, then component.) Also identifying off-the-shelf components.
('3. Component modeling and simulation/testing.
('4. sub-assembly modeling and simulation/testing.
('5. Final assembly and simulation/testing.

Progress 1/22/2014
As above, I've nailed down the systems that make this beast up as well as outlined the mission profiles that it needs to fill. Given what I envision for this thing it looks like there's going to be some major design reworking.

What is next?
I am putting some thought into perhaps a Google doc or something similar to save this thread from bloat. If you think that's a good idea, please tell me so.

('1/15/2014
I've scraped together all the reference material I could on such short notice. I've included a few of the images below so you guys can get a healthy look at what I'm working with.

What's Next?!
Using the reference material I am completing a rough sketch of the capabilities (mission parameters) that the AT-ST fills and then outlining the major systems and subsystems that are required to realize the mission requirements. Once each subsystem's requirements are nailed down I'll be identifying off-the-shelf parts in order to reduce costs and facilitate ease of manufacture.

==== AT-ST Design Overview====
Mission Profiles
('1) Forward Scout
- high speed in foot navigable terrain (40kph)
- long range target acquisition
- low sensor profile (EM, radar, thermal, camouflage, etc.)
- 300+ mile operating range
- deep water fording (18+ feet)

('2) Close Combat Support
- mortar and light anti-armor weapons hardpoint mounting
- anti-RPG and IED identification and defeat
- sniper location detection
- drone launch platform
- anti-scaling measures and trip-line defeat
- close quarters thermal detection and IFF tagging

Systems
- Command and Control
- Power Source
- Mainframe/Skeleton
- Motion Actuation
- Sensors (Battlefield and systems)
- Hardpoints
- Computation (for motion, systems, and battle management)
- Communications

spacefighter

no offence intended but describing a mech as a "practical design"!! anyway i will be interested to see how this turns out i'm guessing it will be pretty extraordinary detail levels.

evil_genius_180

At least it's not Luke's landspeeder. (or a Naboo N-1 Stafighter, or anything else that "floats")

Interesting project. Practical or not, the AT-ST is one of the coolest Sci-Fi vehicles of all time, so I'm looking forward to seeing the modeling.

spacefighter

evil_genius_180 wrote: »

At least it's not Luke's landspeeder. (or a Naboo N-1 Stafighter, or anything else that "floats")

"floating" is not impossible. just put a superconductor in the ground and a powerful magnet in the vehicle(meissner effect), only works on your superconducting roads though. it just strikes me that for an armoured fighting vehicle(which is what an AT-ST basically is) the best improvement from wheels or tracks is to vtol, a bit like the gunships in avatar, as opposed to onto legs. considering how prevalent small high power sources are in starwars one would think that that makes sense.

evil_genius_180

I never said it was impossible, it just adds a whole new degree of difficulty.

TALON_UK

Looking forward to seeing how this goes, results should be most interesting.

:thumb:

Berticus

spacefighter wrote: »

no offence intended but describing a mech as a "practical design"!! anyway i will be interested to see how this turns out i'm guessing it will be pretty extraordinary detail levels.

Well, as practical as it can be. I'll be honest and say that I don't know how much of the original AT-ST will make it through this design process. I'll guarantee that there will be a lot of "mission bloat" on my part followed by trimming of everything that isn't necessary.

evil_genius_180 wrote: »

At least it's not Luke's landspeeder. (or a Naboo N-1 Stafighter, or anything else that "floats")

Interesting project. Practical or not, the AT-ST is one of the coolest Sci-Fi vehicles of all time, so I'm looking forward to seeing the modeling.

evil! Hey, bud, long time! How have you been? Also, floating things are more difficult, I agree. The N-1 appears to have the potential for a "real" counterpart. There's a lot of extra weight in the main beam (between thrusters) that wouldn't be necessary if the engines were mounted in-board. But that's for another time!

spacefighter wrote: »

"floating" is not impossible. just put a superconductor in the ground and a powerful magnet in the vehicle(meissner effect), only works on your superconducting roads though. it just strikes me that for an armoured fighting vehicle(which is what an AT-ST basically is) the best improvement from wheels or tracks is to vtol, a bit like the gunships in avatar, as opposed to onto legs. considering how prevalent small high power sources are in starwars one would think that that makes sense.

spacefighter: Watch this!

TALON_UK wrote: »

Looking forward to seeing how this goes, results should be most interesting.

:thumb:

I'm glad I can titilate your imagination! I hope I can live up to the expectations.

In other news, the first post has been updated. This is really slow going (at least I feel like it is) but I'm making some progress with an extremely busy schedule... So I guess there's that.

evil_genius_180

Berticus wrote: »

evil! Hey, bud, long time! How have you been? Also, floating things are more difficult, I agree. The N-1 appears to have the potential for a "real" counterpart. There's a lot of extra weight in the main beam (between thrusters) that wouldn't be necessary if the engines were mounted in-board. But that's for another time!

I've been good. How about you?

Y'see, things like this are why I just build models and say "The yet-to-be invented thingamabob makes it all work." It clears up any "real" discussions. Kind of like the flux capacitor in Back to the Future. We don't know how it works, we only know it's what makes time travel possible.