Based on Tamiya's little model of a walking giraffe, the Electric Giraffe is a 17 foot tall robotic giraffe that borrows this toy's walking mechanism. The giraffe uses a small 12 horsepower engine burning propane gas to charge system batteries that power a 3 horsepower electric motor that only needs 1.5 horsepower to move the giraffe, using a true hybrid fuel-engine-generator-electric motor design. The motor gives its power to a "hydrostatic transmission", providing a continuously variable "analog" speed control. Currently the giraffe has about 500 watts of on board audio power, slated to be expanded to at least 2000 watts in the future, as well as a multitude of programmable lights controlled by Kontron embedded systems.
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