13 - Jumping Robot
Team Members:
Roberto Avila, Corey Nguyen, Mario Pastrana-OConnor, Pranav Bangaru
Summary/Overview:
Most robots that are used for locomotion consist of 4 wheels, usually powered as real or front wheel drive (such as cars and RC Cars), front wheels with a caster wheel (rickshaws or robots), or robots with 4 wheels each independently controlled by a motor. Recently, we have seen advancements in quadruped and bipedal robots, designed to imitate a dog or a human walking pattern respectively. Such robots include Spot from Boston Dynamics, Unitree R1, and figure robot from figure ai. However many of these robots struggle with being able to jump from high distances, as well as traversing rough uneven terrain, especially with a lot of elevation gain. For example, we can imagine how a 4 wheeled robot would struggle with crossing a harsh environment such as stairs or some of the hills in Austin.
With our design, we are trying to create a jumping spherical enclosure robot, able to withstand and traverse such terrain. Such a robot has many different applications, not limited to Search and Rescue, Food delivery, as well as patrolling applications.
Many quadrupeds and four wheeled robots on the market need a complex control system and can lack the ability to cross over rough terrain. Our team has an way to tackle these issues: a jumping spherical or frog based robot!
Inspiration: Spring based frog jumping toy | Spherical Robot Deep Space Exploration |
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Project Overview
This project explores the design and implementation of a jumping robot using an inverted slider-crank mechanism to convert stored elastic energy into rapid vertical motion. Rubber bands were used as the primary energy storage element, while a motor-driven pulley system slowly loaded the mechanism. A clutch-based release enabled fast unloading, allowing the robot to jump despite limited actuator power.
Problem Statement
Jumping robots require very high peak power over short time scales, which is difficult to achieve directly with small electric motors. The goal of this project was to design a mechanically amplified system that allows energy to be accumulated slowly and released quickly, enabling a jump using readily available actuators.
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