Walking excavator

The original walking excavators were enormous and unwieldy machines which alternately raised and lowered sets of foot plates or sections of tracks to maneuver in all directions - albeit typically very slowly.

Largely independent of this line of evolution, most traditional excavators followed that of tractors and tanks, employing tracks or standard wheels attached to fixed undercarriage, limiting their usability on steep inclines, uneven terrain or positions beyond their safe range of operation.

The first development along this line was made in 1966 by Edwin Ernst Menzi (1897–1984) and Joseph Kaiser (1928–1993), who created a prototype excavator suitable for work on mountain slopes.

As with backhoe operation, the boom is often employed in moving, in the walking excavator's case to overcome gaps that are wider than the reach of its legs.

[3] Despite the advantages of the design, it has not yet been widely used for a number of reasons, including the relatively small gain in mobility; the fact that most excavation is done in urban areas; and the high cost, both of the electro-hydraulic controls and of maintenance.