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The walking truck (cybernetic walking machine) was an experimental quadruped robot made by General Electric in 1965. It was designed by Ralph Mosher to help infantry carry equipment over rough terrain. It alternatively bore the name of "CAM", an acronym for "cybernetic anthropomorphous machine", as seen in a segment of the Walter Cronkite-hosted The 21st Century in 1968.
Operation
The stepping of the robot was controlled by a human operator through foot and hand movements coupled to hydraulic valves. The complex movements of the legs and body pose were done entirely through hydraulics. The hydraulic fluid and pressure was supplied through an off-board system. The walking truck was one of the first technological hardware design applications to incorporate force feed-back to give the operator a feel of what was happening.
The walking truck can be seen at the U.S. Army Transportation Museum in Fort Eustis, Virginia. The robot weighed 3,000 pounds (1,400 kg) and could walk up to 5 miles per hour (8 km/h). It was exhausting to control and, according to program lead Ralph Mosher who was the designer and primary driver, operators could only drive the walking truck for a limited time.