One-legged hopping robots have some balance issues. Their reliance on off-board power has kept them fast. Although one-legged robots can only move by hopping. Now, Disney scientists have discovered a hopper that runs on battery power. This is the first ever one-legged hopping robot that does not need a connection to an external motor or power.
Joohyung Kim, associate research scientist at Disney Research said, “One-legged robots can only move by hopping, freeing them of tethers would open up new, non-research uses. The highly efficient leg modules also can be combined to create multi-legged robots.”
Scientists want to create a light and effective robot. So, they developed this hopping robot, which weighs a little less than five pounds and is one foot in height. The robot can maintain its balance independently for approximately seven seconds, or 19 hops. However, researchers expect an increase in onboard computing power could keep it upright far longer.
Many hoppers generally consist of hydraulic devices. However, hydraulic actuation requires off-board motors. Additionally, they are active enough to pose issues outside of a controlled laboratory environment.
Scientists have then designed a linear elastic actuator in parallel, or LEAP to a linear elastic actuator in parallel, or LEAP. It makes the robot hop to use electrical power. The LEAP uses a voice coil actuator. Voice coil actuator is a highly efficient actuator that operates the same way as a loudspeaker driver. It is combined with two compression springs. The voice coil actuator and a pair of springs to give it extra bounce.
A flat platform connects with the robot’s leg. This platform shields the batteries, sensors, and controlling computer. The angle of the leg is adjusted at each hop. For this, scientists used two standard servo motors to keep the upper torso level during hopping.
This hopping robot, containing the torso’s weight, is about twice as heavy as the leg. These overall things are balanced by an algorithm trained in 3D simulations. The result is that this hopping robot can hop about untethered for up to 19 jumps before falling over.
