Mechanics of Jumping via Body Deformation

Abstract

As jumping is an effective method of moving over rough terrain, there is much interest in building robots that can jump, and deformation of a soft robot's body is an effective method to induce jumping. Our aim was to investigate the effect of the initial deformed shape of deformation of a circular shell made of spring metal. The dish shape jumped the highest in the initial shapes of deformation, with the dish jumping twice as high as the cap. A simulation of a model was in good agreement with the observations. We showed that the jumping height is determined by impulse, time and the center of gravity until taking off from the ground.