Mini robot jumps 30 meters high

Engineers report in the journal Nature on a small robot weighing 30 grams that uses stretched carbon fiber arcs to store energy and accelerate up to 100km/h per hour. It thus leaps more than 30 meters into the air - that is, a hundred times its own body weight. Thus, according to the authors, the robot not only outperforms other known jumping robots, but also surpasses the best jumpers in the animal world. In animals, the maximum jump height is limited by the force the muscles can generate when pushing off. The height of a robot's jumps can be increased by a rotary motor.

The robot was developed by the team led by Elliot Hawkes of the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Santa Barbara in California. First, the researchers analyzed natural jumping strategies of insects and animals. In most cases, these are based on the tension of linear muscles. To build their jumping robot, the team chose an electric motor because it can exert stronger forces via rotational movements. As a result, they constructed a prototype that combines a motor with repeatedly tensionable struts made of carbon fiber and reinforcing rubber bands.

The robot, which is 30 centimeters tall and weighs 30 grams, thus achieves an accurate jumping height of 32.9 meters. The study is intended to show ways where jumping robots can be used in the future. For example, such jumping robots - equipped with small sensors and cameras - can be used in addition to flying drones to explore terrain that is difficult to access. According to the researchers' calculations, jumps of up to 125 meters would be possible on the moon due to six times less gravity. It is estimated that a robot could thus jump half a kilometer and explore significantly larger regions during future lunar expeditions than is possible today with moving Mars rovers.