《2016MSU Jumper A Single-Motor-Actuated Miniature Steerable Jumping Robot》.pdf

602 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ROBOTICS, VOL. 29, NO. 3, JUNE 2013 MSU Jumper: A Single-Motor-Actuated Miniature Steerable Jumping Robot Jianguo Zhao, Student Member, IEEE, Jing Xu, Member, IEEE, Bingtuan Gao, Member, IEEE, Ning Xi, Fellow, IEEE, ´ Fernando J. Cintron, Student Member, IEEE, Matt W. Mutka, Fellow, IEEE, and Li Xiao, Senior Member, IEEE Abstract—The ability to jump is found widely among small ani- it is important to deploy them appropriately to obtain the best mals such as frogs, grasshoppers, and fleas. They jump to overcome data acquisition result [1]. Instead of deploying them manually, large obstacles relative to their small sizes. Inspired by the animals’ one can equip the sensors with the locomotion ability so that jumping capability, a miniature jumping robot—Michigan State University (MSU) Jumper—has been developed. In this paper, the they can deploy themselves to form a mobile sensor network. mechanical design, fabrication, and experimentation of the MSU There are three reasons to employ jumping as a locomotion jumper are presented. The robot can achieve the following three method for mobile sensors. First, jumping enables a sensor to performances simultaneously, which distinguish it from the other overcome a large obstacle in comparison with its size. In fact, existing jumping robots. First, it can perform continuous steerable the ratio between the jumping height and the sensor size can be jumping that is based on the self-righting and the steering capabil- 30 [2]. In contrast, wheeled locomotion on land cannot over- ities. Second, the robot only requir