Chickenhead by thomastapir on DeviantArt (original) (raw)

Somewhat retro-stylized overland expeditionary mecha so named not for its willingness to perform anonymous oral sex
vimeo.com/39110678
but rather because its "head" remains gyroscopically suspended in a fixed position relative to the plane of gravity regardless of the body's orientation, like the chickens in that Mercedes-Benz commercial:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=nLwML2…

One of the things that's always puzzled and irritated me about giant walking machines in sci-fi is the assumption that the occupants will somehow naturally adjust to the sustained jarring motion such a mode of ground transportation would necessarily entail ("oh, it's just like getting your sea legs, lolol" is a common refrain). Obviously this is more forgivable in the case of war machines, where the pilot or operator wouldn't necessarily expect a luxurious "ride" and would presumably be occupying the machine only for relatively brief periods during combat; it makes far less sense in light of machines ostensibly designed for people to live and work in over an extended duration.

Imagine waking up in the morning, taking a shower, brushing your teeth, getting dressed, stopping by the galley or kitchen to make yourself a cup of coffee, and then heading upstairs to the lab or observation lounge to meet your colleagues and watch a presentation, or study some newly collected specimens--all while inside a machine that's continuously rocking, bobbing, dipping, lurching, jouncing, and swaying, and perhaps even catapulting itself through the air and impacting the ground over and over again in a jolting rhythmic cycle of launch and landing. Even invoking some sort of sophisticated suspension system for the legs, it's difficult to imagine conditions being comfortable or even bearable from a practical point of view over the long term.

So given that preamble, I guess my proposed solution is pretty obvious: sequester the crew and passengers in a separate cabin mounted on a gyroscopically stabilized gimbal assembly at the terminal end of a floating suspension armature, keeping the entire habitat module level and at a consistent elevation independent of the motion of the machine's lower body. Overall I picture the whole thing working like a combination industrial motion simulator
web.aeromech.usyd.edu.au/vsfs/…
and Steadicam-style apparatus of the kind that served as the basis for the infamous "smart guns" in ALIENS:
www.proaimpro.com/Images/Body_…

The lower body contains the powerplant, drive system, and some cargo space, as you'd probably imagine. If the machine carries any smaller vehicles, they would be stowed here. This is only one possible variation on a design with many potential iterations, of course, but I don't know how many of them I'll get to before I lose interest and move on to something else. : p

Likely inspiration: