Design of a tumbling robot that jumps and tumbles for rough terrain

In obstacle-dense environments and uneven terrain, tumbling and jumping are efficient modes of locomotion for small robots. A miniature robot with hybrid motion patterns of tumbling and jumping for these environments and terrain is presented in this paper. The robot is 15cm long, 12cm wide, 4cm high, and 260g in weight with two 10cm long arms. The jumping energy is stored by using a reduction gearbox-cable mechanism to compress four torsion springs and stretch two tension springs. The robot jumps when the stored energy is released by an incomplete gear of the gearbox. The tumbling mechanism is symmetric with respect to the left and right of the body. With the tumbling mechanism, the robot can easily adjust its take-off angle when jumping. The jumping and tumbling mechanism are analyzed. Detailed implementation and experimental results are also given in this paper. The proposed robot can jump more than 53 cm high at a take-off angle of 80.54° and walk forward at a speed of 7.27cm/s.