A novel one-motor driven robot that jumps and walks

Abstract

This paper presents a 10 cm × 5 cm × 5 cm, 52 g one-motor driven robot. One DC motor with a driving gear drives two driven gears to implement the functions of jumping and walking. Two one-way bearings mounted on the inner races of the two driven gears are used to switch between jumping and walking when the motor rotates clockwise and anticlockwise respectively. The jumping energy is obtained by compressing and releasing two torsion springs using a cylindrical cam with quick return characteristics. Two disk cams drive two forelegs with elastic joints to step forward one after another to implement the walking locomotion pattern. Two connecting rods link the forelegs and the rear legs on the left and right sides of the robot to transmit motions from forelegs to rear legs. The jumping and walking performances of the robot are tested. Experimental results show that the proposed robot can jump more than 33 cm high at a takeoff angle of 71.2° and it can walk forward at 1.43 mm/s.