Biological Mechanism of the Locust Jumping Robot

In the nature, different insects have various jump characteristics, which have the significant bionic inspiration to structural design and gait research of jumping robot in the different situations. The understanding of kinetic behavior of animals is very helpful to study bionic theories and their applications in machines. The animal applied in this research is locust, Oedaleus infernalis, a kind of jumping insects. The geometrical configuration of the locust was observed by using stereomicroscope. The jumping process of the locust was captured by high-speed photography method. By biological observation and kinematic analysis, the locust jump was divided into take-off phase, aerial phase and landing phase. Based on the observation, the locust jump was simplified and a mechanical model was put forward. The ground reaction force of the model was analyzed. The results showed that the model had the advantages of low likelihood of premature lift-off and high efficiency as the locust. This work could provide an important reference for studying other bionic robots and bionic walking mechanisms.