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Tetrahedron Machines

Locomotion

Locomotion is achieved in several ways: flipping, lean/sliding, hopping, leaping, and other combination moves.

When fully retracted, the machine can simply flip over onto a new face by extending and retracting one cylinder. This shifts the center of gravity, and inertia continues the motion to completion. With high air pressure and good timing, the machine will neatly flip onto any desired new face.

Lean/sliding moves the Tetrahedron's center of mass toward one face; as a result, one foot will have less friction with the ground than the adjacent feet. This foot slides away from the others when the adjacent edges are extended. This works best with low air pressure.

When two or more upright edges are simultaneously extended, the machine will hop.

If the machine is nearly flat, and "top-down", and if the "top" edges extend simultaneously, the Prime Tetrahedron will leap into the air a distance greater than its own height. The machine has a natural top (the least massive vertex) where three shafts are joined, as opposed to vertices where one, two, or three cylinder bases connect.

Reduced gas pressure and flow will move the machine gracefully, almost sinuously, like an amoeba or a dancer under water.

When two adjacent edges are simultaneously extended, the machine can enter a degenerate planar state, fully collapsed on the ground. With high enough gas pressure, the machine will escape this state with a nice hop into the air. Low gas pressure will not permit escape, and this state will strain the corner joints and bend the cylinder shafts. Volunteer operators seem to enjoy this mode, and I cannot talk them out of it.