The Penn Jerboa showcases new leaping behaviors and demonstrates an innovative method of describing and categorizing these leaps across robot platforms.
Article "
University of Pennsylvania Unleashes Robot Jerboa Upon the World"
by Evan Ackerman
April 16, 2015
Abstract:
This paper explores the design space of simple
legged robots capable of leaping culminating in new behaviors
for the Penn Jerboa, an underactuated, dynamically dexterous
robot. Using a combination of formal reasoning and physical
intuition, we analyze and test successively more capable
leaping behaviors through successively more complicated body
mechanics. The final version of this machine studied here
bounds up a ledge 1.5 times its hip height and crosses a
gap 2 times its body length, exceeding in this last regard the
mark set by the far more mature RHex hexapod. Theoretical
contributions include a non-existence proof of a useful class of
leaps for a stripped-down initial version of the new machine,
setting in motion the sequence of improvements leading to the
final resulting performance. Conceptual contributions include a
growing understanding of the Ground Reaction Complex as an
effective abstraction for classifying and generating transitional
contact behaviors in robotics.