Design and implementation of an SMA-actuated jumping robot

The jumping locomotion can be quite a useful way for ground robots because it can provide a high locomotion speed and energy efficiency. We report in this paper the design, simulation, and preliminary experimental results of a jumping robot that is 150 mm long. The robot design is inspired by the structure of vertebrates´ musculoskeletal system and the function of muscles that are used for the jumping motion. A few essential muscles are applied to our robot in the form of shape memory alloy (SMA) wires. The jumping motion of a computer model is simulated to find a suitable pattern of SMA wire activation. The parameters obtained from the simulation are applied to a robot prototype in experiments. Experimental results show that the forward distance obtained from the jumping experiment is comparable to the simulation result.