Chinese scientists develop legless robot capable of rapid jumping, shifting directions

BEIJING, Dec. 8 (Xinhua) — A team of Chinese researchers has developed a legless soft robot capable of rapid jumping and agile turning.

The robot, measuring 6.5 cm in length and 1.1 grams in weight, can jump 7.68 times its body height and hop forward continuously at a speed of 6.01 times its body length per second.

Jumping continuously and adjusting directions at once is essential for robots to overcome obstacles in an unstructured environment, but is difficultly achieved, according to researchers.

The electro-hydrostatically-driven robot is composed of two actuators filled with liquids. It has a special liquid-air layout that can render rapid turning with a speed of 138.4 degrees per second, according to the study published in the journal Nature Communications.

The robot is found to be capable of skipping across many obstacles like steep slopes, electric wires and gravel.

It provides a foundation for the application of electro-hydrostatic actuation in soft robots for agile and fast multimodal locomotion.

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