A Miniature Water Surface Jumping Robot

Abstract

Many small insects such as water striders can leap from water surface. Inspired by their jumping capability, we present the design of a novel, miniature, water surface jumping robot in this paper. Jumping from water surface is more challenging than jumping from ground due to the liquid water surface. We address this problem by using carbon fiber strip to store energy, two wings to flap the water surface, a hollow body to initially support the robot, and an intermittent gear train to charge and release energy. With such a design, the final robot weighs around 12.5 g and has a maximum size of 10 cm. Experimental results show that the robot can jump up to 9.5 cm in height, which is close to the predicted results from a dynamic model developed by us to capture the hydrodynamic behaviors of the robot during the whole jumping process. The research presented in this paper offers a new design of tiny robots for mimicking the water-jumping capability of aquatic insects. The robot, if equipped with sensors, can be employed for aquatic environmental monitoring of water quality.