is it a bird is it an airplane No, it’s a 30 centimeter small jumping machine that can hop quite high. The robot created by a team from the University of California in Santa Barbara catapults itself more than 30 meters into the air, the engineers report in the trade journal Nature. That’s more than 100 times its own size. Thus, according to the study authors, the robot outperforms other well-known jumping robots. What is special about the robot, in addition to its ability to jump, is that it can stand up on its own after landing and then continue hopping.
The robot consists of a motor that pulls a string to tension the spring. In addition, four arches are connected to the motor housing at the top and to each other at the bottom. They serve as additional springs. When the string is loosened, the spring and outer arc springs also loosen and the robot literally shoots up. When the robot has landed again, the motor pulls the cord again to build tension and the bows bend again. The result is: The robot stands up again by itself.
This clearly distinguishes the Californian robot from other jumping robots. So far, researchers have mostly emulated the movement of animals with similar jumping machines. However, living beings are limited by the performance of their muscles in the jump height. In contrast, significantly more energy can be stored and released in artificial springs, write the researchers led by Elliot Hawkes Nature.
Jumping robots could overcome obstacles more easily while also taking pictures of the ground beneath them, something previously only possible with flying drones. The principle may also be useful in space travel. With correspondingly lower gravity, the robot could climb up to 125 meters on the moon and cover half a kilometer in one jump. This could be helpful for exploring the site.