‘Squirrel’ Robot is able to jump from branch in branch

Its description is published in the journal Science Robotics and, according to those responsible, “it is a big step” towards the design of more agile robots, capable of jumping between the fleche and beams of the buildings under construction, between cables or pipes, or of monitoring the environment in framed forests or tree drinks.

“The squirrels are the best athletes of nature,” says Robert Full, one of the authors, for whom the way they maneuver and escape is incredible. The idea of ​​this work was to define the control strategies they use to perform “extraordinary feats” and use that information to make more agile robots.

For example, scientists, thanks to sensors in branches and videos, found that almost all energy, 86 % of kinetic energy, absorb the front legs. However, the key to balance is that they adjust the braking force applied to the branch to compensate whether they pass or fall short.

Inspired by these, the researchers, led by Justin Yim, redesigned a single leg robot developed at the University of California in 2016. Jump – that’s what it is called – I was already able to jump and make a kind of “parkour”, but only on flat terrain; The challenge was now to get a landing after a jump at a specific point, a narrow rod.

But maintaining the erect balance after jumping on a narrow beam can be a challenge for robots, since they need to counteract a great impulse using a limited support space.

While the apes depend on their strong grip to hold while they swing under the branches, the squirrels can jump and maintain the erect balance despite lacking a similar grip force.

Thus, biologists and engineers designed an approach to increase the possibilities that a robot achieves upright and balanced landings without the need for a great grip force, controlling the forces throughout your leg.

The robots with one leg may seem little practical, given the risk of falling when they are standing, but to jump very high the best is a single leg, says Yim in a statement.

To test their strategy, scientists equipped jump with a light clamp at the tip of the foot.

They carried out experiments in which it was from one branch to another and tried to maintain balance, initially controlling only the strength of their legs and then with the help of a wheel in their body.

In 30 tests, the robot jumped and landed successfully 25 times and fell 5. He achieved up erect and balanced landings in 2 of the successful attempts and grabbed the branch and swing above or below it in the remaining attempts.

Salto needs to reorient your leg to prepare to land while in the air, so you have to make more pronounced jumps than squirrels, which are initially balanced with their front limbs after more superficial jumps.

The team points out that future investigations could improve balance control.