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According to Jansen he used a genetic algorithm (*) to derive the ratios of the lengths of the leg parts. It took an immense amount of time to run on a 1990s computer.
Some of Jansen's mechanisms are very ingenious such as harvesting wind power in plastic soda bottles to give the initial impetus to get a Strandbeest walking.
I have seen a paper Strandbeest - it probably wouldn't be too difficult to create a card one.
Charlie
* - for the non computer people a genetic algorithm emulates evolution by creating a population of solutions to a problem. Then the population is mutated (changed) and the descendants compete with the parents for selection into the next generation based on how "fit" they are. It's a fairly efficient algorithm but can take a long time to run.
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