Engineers at the University of Manchester have unlocked the secrets of a robot design that can jump 200 meters. It can jump higher than any other jumping robot ever designed.
Engineers at the University of Manchester have unveiled a design that can jump higher than any other jumping robot ever designed. According to this design, the robot can reach a height of 200 meters.
It can jump twice as high as Big Ben
Using a combination of mathematics, computer simulations and laboratory experiments, researchers have discovered how to design a robot with an optimal size, shape and arrangement of parts that allows it to jump high enough to clear obstacles several times its size.
The highest existing jumping robot can reach up to 33 meters, equivalent to 110 times its own size. Now researchers have discovered how to design a robot that can jump 120 meters in the air (or 200 meters on the moon). This is more than twice the height of the Big Ben tower.
This advance will revolutionize applications ranging from planetary exploration and disaster recovery to surveillance of dangerous or inaccessible areas. Dr. John Lo, Research Fellow in Space Robotics at the University of Manchester, said: “Robots have traditionally been designed to move by rolling on wheels or using legs to walk.
But jumping provides an efficient way to travel where the terrain is challenging. While jumping robots already exist, there are many major challenges in the design of these jumping machines. Chief among them is jumping high enough to overcome large and complex obstacles. Our design will significantly improve the energy efficiency and performance of spring-driven jumping robots.”
The researchers found that conventional jumping robots often take off without fully releasing their stored spring energy, resulting in inefficient jumps and limiting their maximum height. They also found that they wasted energy by moving side-to-side or turning instead of moving upwards.
New designs should focus on eliminating these unwanted movements while maintaining the necessary structural strength and rigidity. Dr. Ben Parslew, Senior Lecturer in Aerospace Engineering, said, “There were many questions to answer and decisions to make about the shape of the robot. For example, should it have legs to push off the ground like a kangaroo, or should it look more like a designed piston with a giant spring?
Should it be a simple symmetrical shape like a diamond, or should it be more curved and organic? Then, once we have decided that, we need to think about the size of the robot. Small robots are light and agile, but large robots can carry larger motors for more powerful jumps, so is the best option somewhere in the middle?
Our structural redesigns redistribute the robot’s component mass upwards and taper the structure downwards. Lighter legs, prism-shaped and the use of springs that only stretch are features that we have shown improve the bouncing robot’s performance and, most importantly, its energy efficiency.”
While the researchers have found a viable design option to significantly improve performance, their next goal is to figure out how to use the kinetic energy from its landing to control the direction of the jumps and increase the number of jumps the robot can make in a single run.
