Design and testing of a controllable miniature jumping robot

Mobile sensors with jumping ability provide several advantages compared with the traditional wheeled sensors such as ability to move in rugged terrain. A controllable jumping robot for this purpose is described in this paper. The robot has dimension about 9.5cm × 9cm × 3cm and weighs 54.1 grams. It can perform the jumping process continuously. This paper focuses on the mechanisms to achieve such a continuous jumping ability, including the jumping mechanism, energy store and release mechanism, and self-righting mechanism. Detail implementation and experimental results are also given in this paper. It is shown that with a 75° takeoff angle, the robot can jump about 20cm in height.