Scientists Develop New Springy Robot That Can Jump Incredibly High

Jul, 2022 - By WMR

The new springy robot developed in the Hawkes Lab can achieve the tallest height nearly 100 ft of any jumper that is engineered or biological

For many years scientists explored height limits of biological jump and for years engineers designed jumping machines that were often inspired from biological jumpers. Now a team of scientists at UC Santa Barbara developed a new springy robot that can jump higher than any jumper ever has till date, engineered or biological with the help of a special design that multiplies the stored energy inside the jumper.

This new robots possesses looks of toy rocket attached to top of two intersecting bicycle wheels. The tires used in these wheels are made from carbon-fiber compression bows and the spokes are of rubber bands that extend from a spindle that goes up to the center. The scientists incorporated a motor to drive the spindle and to pull a line that stretches the rubber bands and at the same time compresses the bow made of carbon fiber. A latch mechanism used in this robot to release this energy to shoot the robot into the sky.

According to the scientists, the robot jumps higher than 100 ft, which is the tallest height that any other current material or technology achieved. The robot accelerated from 0 to 60 mph that is 96.6 km/h in 9 meters per second and achieves an acceleration force of 315 G. The team designed the robot to have spring-motor ration 100 times bigger than jumping animals ratio, with which it reached such heights. Such locomotion can be used in space exploration application, where lower gravity will help robot to leap higher and farther with more efficiency compared to on Earth. As per the team, for example, the robot would jump higher than 125 m (410 ft) and travel 500m (1,640 ft) horizontally on Moon.