Voice coil based hopping mechanism for microrobot

Hopping is a very efficient locomotion method for a robot in an unconstructed environment or a complicated terrain. Small hopping robots have many interesting properties in comparison to the larger ones. However, relatively little research has been reported on hopping microrobot, while most of existing designs of hopping robots are not suitable to scale down. In this paper we propose a novel hopping mechanism that is based on the working principle of voice coil actuator. This mechanism is relatively easy to miniaturize and the hopping performance improves in a smaller scale. Two prototypes are developed based on electromagnetic simulation and an analytic model of hopping process. The first prototype has a dimension of Φ30 mm × 10 mm and a mass of 41.59 g, with a hopping height of about 45 mm. The second one has a dimension of Φ14 mm × 6 mm and a mass of 4.94 g, and achieves a hopping height of about 65 mm.