Six-legged capsule module in the spirit of ASV-84 — Walking Castle

About the concept

A walking house module inspired by the 1980s OSU Adaptive Suspension Vehicle. Six planar pantograph legs decouple the axes: one linear actuator moves the foot only vertically, the other only horizontally — so hydraulics are replaced by just two electric drives per leg. The capsule hull with a vaulted roof and panoramic glazing is designed to be built in-house from rolled tubes and 100 mm sandwich panels.

Documentation

ENPDF (EN) — English7.1 MB RUPDF (RU) — Russian7.1 MB

All calculations are conceptual, without FEM strength analysis.

Key specifications

Hull	Capsule 7.9 × 4.0 × 3.1 m, vaulted roof, panoramic glazing
Floor area / volume	27.1 m² net / ≈72 m³
Floor level / overall height	+1.16 m / 4.0 m
Mass	11.7 t walking; 16.2 t parked with snow
Legs	6 pantograph legs, 3 per side; foot track 4.5 m; Ø 800 mm foot pads
Drives	12 electric, 2 per leg: lift — self-locking trapezoidal screw; stride — ball screw with brake
Gait	Tripod (always 3 feet on the ground); wave gait (5 feet) on rough ground
Speed	0.86 m/min with the selected actuators (0.95 m/min calculated cycle)
Stability margin (tripod)	≥ 0.92 m nominal; ≥ 0.72 m with a 3° slope and people moving inside
Max. leg load	63 kN
Ground pressure	76 kPa nominal / 125 kPa worst case
Turning	Differential stepping: ≈1.5° per half-cycle, radius ≥ 23 m
Power / energy	Installed 21.3 kW, peak 5.6 kW; ≈2.3 kWh per 100 m
Entrance	Electric scissor ladder deploying from a cassette under the floor

* All calculations are conceptual, without FEM strength analysis.

Layout

The homes are fully livable: a living room with a view, kitchen, bathroom with shower, bedroom and a technical niche (water tanks, boiler, 16 kWh LiFePO4 batteries, 6 kW inverter).

Rooftop solar: 9 × 430 W panels on the capsule vault = 3.9 kWp, annual average ≈15 kWh per day.

Conceptual estimate. Drawings are labelled in Russian.