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That thing looks amazing! A similar concept was these walking harvesters https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2pJwDZXasKU

That was an interesting idea. Deere acquired them, and built a prototype.[1] But Ponsse's approach[2] was more practical. The dual chassis articulated 8-wheel system is unusual but very effective.

A big problem with those heavy legged machines is very low road speed. The Ponsse machine is much faster when you aren't in difficult terrain, so you can get it to the job under its own power. Deere copied that and now makes those, too.

[1] https://agmetalminer.com/mmwp/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/wal...

[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PE1f1GydafQ

One of the advantages of a legged machine is its smaller footprint on the often very vulnerable (at least in boreal forests) forest floor. Wheels and tracks tear and dig into the soil and cause a lot of damage that can take years to heal.

The Ponsse machine: it would be cool if they could recover the gravitational potential energy of the tree for the cutting operations, say by storing the energy in a flywheel

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