Engineers build legless robot that jumps 10 feet high

With the continuous advancements in the field of robotics, some engineers have started to look outside the box in terms of how robots can move, creating a soft robot that has no legs, yet can jump up to 10 feet high.

Specifically, Georgia Tech researchers have created a 5-inch soft robot made out of a silicone rod with a carbon-fiber spine, inspired by the movements of a tiny parasitic worm, and which can jump as high as a basketball hoop, according to a Tech Xplore report published on April 23.

The tiny parasite in question is a nematode or round worm, which may cause illnesses in its host, making it useful in agriculture and gardening where it destroys invasive insects and protects vegetation. Nematodes use their jumping abilities to latch onto their host before entering their bodies.

Indeed, in the words of Sunny Kumar, the lead co-author of the paper and a postdoctoral researcher in the School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering (ChBE):

“Nematodes are amazing creatures with bodies thinner than a human hair. (…) They don’t have legs but can jump up to 20 times their body length. That’s like me lying down and somehow leaping onto a three-story building.”

Imitating nature to create a jumping legless robot

To perform the jump, the parasite points its head straight and creates a kink on the opposite end of its body, pointed high in the air, similar to humans preparing for a standing broad jump. However, instead of hopping straight, the worm catapults itself upward. 

As Kumar explained, changing their center of mass allows them to control which way they jump and there aren’t any other organisms on such a tiny scale that can do this efficiently in both directions at the same height. According to Ishant Tiwari, a ChBE postdoctoral fellow and the study’s co-author:

“Kinks are typically deal breakers. (…) Kinked blood vessels lead to strokes. Kinked straws are worthless. Kinked hoses cut off water. But a kinked nematode stores energy that is used to propel itself in the air.”

After viewing videos of nematodes’ leaping behavior, the team created simulations, and then they built soft robots to replicate it, later reinforcing them with carbon fibers to speed up the leaps. As such, their breakthrough has the potential for deployment in search and rescue missions, where the robots would be able to navigate across unpredictable terrain and obstacles.