Leaping locust: The robot can jump ten times further for its weight and size than any existing robot.
Credit: Federal Polytechnic School of Lausanne
SYDNEY: A tiny robot that leaps like a grasshopper and can clear 27 times its own height has been unveiled at an international robotics conference. Researchers suggest they could be deployed to explore other planets or warzones.
Weighing just seven grams, the mechanical 'locust' can jump 1.4 metres, ten times further for its weight and size than any existing robot. A small battery allows the prototype it to jump 320 times at three-second intervals.
The device, created by Swiss researchers from the Laboratory of Intelligent Systems at the Federal Polytechnic School of Lausanne, was demonstrated on Wednesday at the IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA 2008) in Pasadena, California.
Jumping into rough terrain
It works by using half-gram motor to slowly charge two torsion springs, which are released by a click mechanism. This store-and-release mechanism differs from most other jumping 'bots (which hop continuously). Watch a video of the jumping robot here (23MB).
This is similar to the way fleas and grasshoppers store elastic energy in their legs, releasing it via a hooked tendon catch when they are ready to jump. Fleas can jump about 100 times their body length in a single leap.
"The key which makes our robot perform so well compared to other robots is that we apply the same principles as insects do," said designer Mirko Kovac. "By scaling down a jumping system, different jumping techniques may be more beneficial than others. There is no jumping robot that applies these very same biologically inspired design principles," he said.
Tiny jumping robots could be fitted with solar cells to recharge between jumps and deployed in swarms for extended exploration of remote areas on Earth or on other planets, said lead researcher Dario Floreano.
"This biomimetic form of jumping is unique because it allows micro-robots to travel over many types of rough terrain where no other walking or wheeled robot could go," he said.
Kovac added that other applications include carrying small cameras or sensors, such as chemical sensors to detect sources or leakage of chemicals in industrial plants, or find people after natural calamities.
While the robot he developed is a prototype, such uses are "not too far off being applied," he said.
Military applications
Robotics researcher Andy Russell from the Intelligent Robotics Research Centre at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia, said the robotic locust is an interesting concept, particularly for military applications. "The idea is you can lob [jumping robots] through a window and equip them with a camera and they can have a look around," Russell said.
Because of its small size it would also be cheaper, use less energy to manufacture and be able to go into places where larger robots can't go, he added.
Jumping robots have been around for decades, with a variety of leaping styles based on different animals.
Engineers at the University of Bath in England last claimed the highest jumping title in mid-2007 with their two robots, Jollbot and Glumper, which could hop to heights of 0.18 m and 1.17 m respectively.
At around 50 cm in length and looking like highly technical bike wheels, these designs are giants compared to the robotic locust created by the Swiss team.
Other small jumpers have also been built, including the 15-gram Grillo, created by Italian scientists and presented at the IEEE robotics conference in April 2007. Grillo was designed to move via long jump and could achieve a forward speed of 1.5 metres per second.
Half way there
The landing is always harder than the takeoff! This will probably be more complicated to implement due to the obvious high centre of gravity posed by the length of the legs and narrow base width. Notice how the grasshoppers belly is flat level to the ground? Assuming we are going by the included picture the legs would HAVE to retract to ABOVE lower belly level for it correct if on its side, let alone just balance in high wind environments. I could be wrong.
Equilibrium
One possible method that may work would be a processor similar to the computerized equilibrium of the Segway Personal Transporter. Though the orientation of the grasshopper and other hopping and flying insects maybe correlative to the ground, they are living organisms with built in sensory organs that have to process the information to remain upright and navigable. Any computer or robot wouod have to be able to process the same information in order to land and take off in the same fashion. The problem then becomes a weight issue.