A miniature jumping robot with self-recovery capabilities

— In nature, many animals are able to jump, upright themselves after landing and jump again. This allows them to move in unstructured and rough terrain. As a further development of our previously presented 7g jumping robot, we consider various mechanisms enabling it to recover and upright after landing and jump again. After a weighted evaluation of these different solutions, we present a spherical system with a mass of 9.8g and a diameter of 12cm that is able to jump, upright itself after landing and jump again. In order to do so autonomously, it has a control unit and sensors to detect its orientation and spring charging state. With its current configuration it can overcome obstacles of 76cm at a take-off angle of 75◦ .

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2009
• Where: IROS
• Authors: Mirko Kovac, Manuel Schlegel, Jean-Christophe Zufferey, Dario Floreano
• Keywords: IROS 2009, Robotics, Rough Terrain, Upright, Various Mechanisms