Pictures and video via Carnegie Mellon Univerity
Look up in the air! Is that a kite? No it's the Miniature Jumping & Gliding Robot from Carnegie Mellon University. This miniature robot jumps more than 6 feet into the air, flips out the wings and glides on its way back down. The little robot weighs About 3 and 1/2 oz, and is composed of two four-bar mechanisms (including springs) which form its legs /wings. It’s being developed at the University’s NanoRobotics Lab by Matthew A. Woodward and Metin Sitti, and will be presented fully at IROS 2011 in San Francisco on Monday, September 26th at 4:30pm.
With more development, this type of robot could have a an advantage versus other forms of locomotion, since it can easily glider over rough or impassable terrain. The main problems being that it does not seem likely it can right itself for another jump after the first one, and it may end up snared in the branches of a tree or stuck on the neighbors roof.
Eavesdropper
