http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42667952/ns ... nnovation/
Could America really build an Imperial Walker?
Patriotic geeks who hoped to build a fully functional imperial walker out of the "Star Wars" universe have run up against Lucasfilm's intellectual property rights. But at least the indefinite delay gives them time to consider the massive engineering challenges of re-creating a 50-foot-tall robotic vehicle.
Making a modern-day robotic walker is not impossible, said Heiko Hoffman, a robotics expert at HRL Laboratories in Malibu, Calif., but it easily could cost $100 million or more.
The elephantine four-legged walkers used to attack a snowy Rebel Alliance base in the film "The Empire Strikes Back" were officially known as AT-AT walkers, for "All Terrain Armored Transport."
"(The cost) would likely be much higher for a seriously armored vehicle," Hoffman said of the cost. "If we just build an AT-AT that looks cool, it could be much cheaper."
Hoffman spoke as an outside expert with no connection to the grassroots " AT-AT for America" project. That effort began as an idea on the blog of one man, Mike Koehler, but quickly attracted hundreds of volunteer emails and donations through the crowd-sourcing website Kickstarter.
That project has shut down. "I don’t want anyone to feel that this was a hoax or a stunt," Koehler wrote April 17. "I genuinely felt that we could do this. With so much help, I was sure of it."
(continued, dis-)