This design allows the robot to jump 7.68 times its own body height and has a continuous jump speed of six body lengths per second – a speed that Dr. Lee is “pretty impressive”.
So the robot can jump quickly and continuously. But can he overcome the obstacles? To find out, the researchers put the tiny robot through several tests that might be worthy of an inspiring film montage like Sylvester Stallone’s training in “rocky. “
The robot has to traverse hills, slopes, and various gravel cables. He had to jump through five-millimeter-high circular steps and over eight-millimeter-high empty hoops – a huge hurdle for a four-millimeter-high robot with a cake-like body. Amateur stuntmen pass all of these tests with ease, if not safety.
The robot can also change direction on its own, at about 138 degrees per second — the fastest rotational speed of a soft jump robot, says Dr. Chen. Just like cars, robots can orient themselves through continuous rotation, according to Wenke Ho, a senior researcher at the Max Planck Institute in Germany who was not involved in the research.
The robot relies on external power which is fed via electrical wires. Dr Chen said researchers would like to build a wireless robot in future iterations, but it would be difficult to keep the robot small and light.
“I wonder if adding a power source on board will be a challenge for this little soft track,” said Dr. Lee.
The researchers proposed inserting sensors into small robots to make it possible to detect environmental conditions, such as pollutants in buildings. Dr. Lee suggested the robot could eventually scan hard-to-reach areas of large industrial machines or, if equipped with a small camera, be used in search and rescue missions for trapped people or animals, as it can travel across small areas. space in the disaster area. He added, the robot is small and inexpensive. “It probably only costs a few dollars to build,” said Dr. Lee.
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