These little jumping robots from MIT are tiny, smaller than your thumb, and lighter than a paperclip—like a big ant but with serious acrobatic skills. Researchers at MIT’s Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science made them to hop over obstacles, move across bumpy or slippery terrain, and even do some aerial stunts, all while using way less energy than tiny flying robots. They save about 60% of the power, which helps them keep going longer.
The secret’s in how they’re built: they’ve got a bouncy leg (like the spring in a clicky pen) that lets them jump up to 20 cm—about four times their size—and four flapping wings that lift them up and steer them around. This helps them jump over gaps, deal with rough spots, or tilt in the air to land just right. They can carry things a lot heavier than themselves, which might be useful for jobs like dropping off sensors or small cameras. Someday, they could zip through tight places, like rubble from a fallen building, to help with rescues or check things out.
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What’s neat is how little energy they need. Flying robots use up power just to stay in the air, but these jumpers only need it when they hop, so they can get around without much effort. The catch? They’re still being worked on in the lab, so they won’t be tidying up your place anytime soon. The team’s fiddling with them to make them even quicker and more ready for real-life scenarios. Future versions will include a battery and have the ability to hop autonomously.
Being able to put batteries, circuits, and sensors on board has become much more feasible with a hopping robot than a flying one. Our hope is that one day this robot could go out of the lab and be useful in real-world scenarios,” said Yi-Hsuan (Nemo) Hsiao, an MIT graduate student and co-lead author of a paper on the hopping robot.
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