Now, jumping robot to facilitate search and rescue

Scientists have designed a soft jumping robot that can leap as much as a foot in the air, a technique that will help it avoid obstacles during search and rescue operations.

"Initially, our soft robot systems used pneumatic pressure to actuate," said Robert Shepherd, first author of the study, and former postdoctoral researcher in the Whitesides Research Group at Harvard.

"While that system worked, it was rather slow - it took on the order of a second. Using combustion, however, allows us to actuate the robots very fast. We were able to measure the speed of the robot's jump at 4 meters per second," Shepherd said in a statement.

Just as with other soft robots, the three-legged jumping system begins life as a mold created by a 3-D printer. The robots are molded using soft silicone that allows them to stretch and flex.

But where pneumatic robots are connected to tubing that pumps air, the jumping robots are connected to tubes that deliver a precisely controlled mix of methane and oxygen, according to the study published in the journal Angewandte Chemie.

Using high-voltage wires embedded in each leg of the robot, researchers deliver a spark to ignite the gases, causing a small explosion that sends the robot into the air.

Among the key design innovations that allowed the combustion system to work, Shepherd said, was the incorporation of a simple valve into each leg of the robot.

"We flow fuel and oxygen into the channels, and ignite it. The heat expands the gas, causing the flap to close, pressurising the channel and causing it to actuate.

"As the gas cools, the flap opens and we push the exhaust out by flowing more gas in. So we don't need to use complex valve systems, all because we chose to mold a soft flap into the robot from the beginning," Shepherd said.

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