elastic robot

Researchers have developed a wind-up elastic robot that can keep jumping continuously when supplied with infrared light. The material converts the light into heat, re-tensioning its elastic body so the hopping cycle repeats without batteries or manual rewinding. The demonstration is drawing attention as a possible route to small, untethered soft robots for exploration or search tasks.

Engineers at UCLA have developed a small hopping robot that moves like a frog, using twisting elastic rods as its propulsion mechanism. The design stores energy in the elastic rods, which twist to launch the robot into jumps. The work points to new ways of building agile robots that can hop over obstacles where wheels or legs struggle.