Robot Jumper Leaps to New Heights
Researchers at UC Santa Barbara have propelled a mechanical jumper to new heights using a new method for increasing available energy.
“We wanted to understand what the limits were on engineered jumpers,” said UC Santa Barbara engineering professor Elliot Hawkes . “There hadn’t really been a study that compares and contrasts the two and how their limits are different — whether engineered jumpers are really limited to the same laws that biological jumpers are.”
Transcript
00:00:00 this machine might be the best jumper on earth it's 30 centimeters high but can leap more than 30 meters into the air three times the current world record for a jumping robot and it does it using unnatural engineering many robots use designs based in biology the best jumpers the animal kingdom has
00:00:30 to offer have a plethora of ways to maximize their leaps like long limbs strong muscles and extended joints some insects like grasshoppers even use a form of power amplification to exceed the limitations of their muscles stretching specialized elastic rods in their exoskeletons that launched them when released but as diverse as the natural world is
00:00:55 evolution hasn't cracked every option and there is something that machines can do that nature can't work multiplication even the most powerful muscles only offer a single stroke of action meanwhile machines can use mechanisms like ratcheting or rotating to build up a store of energy before releasing now a team of researchers have
00:01:19 investigated the differences between engineered and biological jumpers and took those insights to create a device capable of jumping 32.9 meters that's taller than the statue of christ the redeemer in brazil the jumper uses a small motor to reel in a polyethylene line compressing springs made of an advanced hybrid material then a lightweight release mechanism
00:01:44 unlatches to launch the device skywards simple but each element has been finely tuned and honed to maximize jumping performance from lightweight feet designed to better transmit energy at launch to a shape that morphs into an aerodynamic dart according to the team behind the jumper this design might be near the
00:02:06 mathematical limit of jump height using available materials and this isn't just an exercise in cool robot design jumping is potentially a useful mode of transportation especially in situations where flight is impossible for instance if there's no atmosphere indeed jumping mechanisms have already been used in space
00:02:30 in 2018 the jaxa hayabusa 2 mission landed two different hopping rovers on the asteroid ryugu their jumping prowess allowed them to maneuver around the rocky environment with less risk of getting stuck than would face a wheeled rover the designers of this device estimate that on the surface of the moon it could leap an astonishing 125 meters high and
00:02:55 travel half a kilometer in a single bound so perhaps the next giant leap in space exploration will be taken by a mechanical jumper like this one