Scientists studying robots encounter many problems in their endeavors, and they usually turn to Mother Nature to solve their problems. For instance, how would a robot move?
Walking in an upright, human-like position is pretty difficult to achieve, and the most evolved humanoid robot only walks as fast as a
clumsy three-year-old child. So a team of mechanical engineers from the University of Bath chose another approach: jumping.
Inspired by animals like lying squirrels, grasshoppers and fleas, nature's champions at this type of locomotion, Rhodri Armour and his colleagues created two jumping robots, Jollbot and Glumper - in a recent issue of Bioinspiration & Biomimetics - which performed the highest jumps any autonomously powered robot was ever capable of.
Jollbot, for instance, is made of a semi-circular hoop springs skeletal structure, with a central axis equipped with a battery pack, servo-mechanisms and radio receiver. By compressing the springs, elastic tension builds up, which is then released in an instant, to lift the robot at 18 centimeters (7 in), which is in fact 2/3 of its entire height.
It also comes with a catch mechanism that ensures its continuous availability for immediate jumps, without requiring any additional energy.
The makers say such robots could one day be used to travel across rough terrain on the Moon and Mars, due to the fact that the low gravity could really make them look like robotic fleas. Their biological cousins have been known to make leaps up to 13 inches (31 cm), about 200 times the length of their own bodies. This would be equal to a 900 foot (300 m) jump by a six-foot (1.80 m) man.
In addition to being able to jump really high, these robots are also very lightweight, which means they could be used as prototypes for future generations of space robots, that could be seen jumping over craters and rough terrain on lunar and Martian landscapes.
"The cost per kilogram of launching something into space is very large, so jumping robots, which are likely to be light in weight to maximize their own performance, are ideally suited from that perspective," said Armour. "On any planetary body with lower than earth gravity, a device which jumps would travel higher and therefore further for each jump."
They could also be used on Earth for some unusual applications, involving stair climbing and fence jumping, which are impossible feats for walking and wheeled robots.
"For earth-bound uses, there are a variety of other possible applications that involve locomotion over random or rough terrain," he added. "Typically these would involve exploration and could occur in places such as volcanoes, caverns, mountainous regions, or more structured rough environments such as urban areas with stairs and other obstacles. Other applications could be for entertainment, such as tourist guides."
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