Inspired by the remarkable jumping ability of an African primate called a galago, scientists have fashioned a small robot with unique leaping capabilities they hope can be used in tricky search-and-rescue situations.
The scientists said on Tuesday they had built a robot, dubbed Salto, that is able to leap into the air and then spring off a wall, or perform multiple vertical jumps consecutively.
The researchers sought to create a robot that might need to hurdle impediments as it traverses difficult terrain like the rubble of a building wrecked by an earthquake.
To design Salto, short for saltatorial locomotion on terrain obstacles, researchers sought inspiration from one of the animal kingdom's best leapers, a relatively small, typically night-active and tree-dwelling primate.
"We looked to biology for inspiration because it's fair to say that animals can outclass any robot when it comes to jumping," said robotics researcher Duncan Haldane, who led the study published in the journal Science Robotics.
"Our goal was to have a search-and-rescue robot small enough to not disturb the rubble further (and) move quickly across the many kinds of rubble produced by collapsed buildings."
The galago jumps so well because it stores energy in its tendons when it is in a crouched position and can then spring into the air. The researchers adapted that into Salto by using a motorised, spring-loaded leg mechanism that lets the robot get into the same type of crouched position.
"The more we understand about how animals move and how to use the available engineering technologies, the closer we can get to that point."
