Researchers from Carnegie Mellon University’s College of Engineering have developed a palm-sized, two-legged robot that’s expected to help out in search and rescue missions, deftly navigating constrained environments.
Standing at 1.5 inches tall — roughly the size of a LEGO minifigure — “Zippy” the robot can skip, climb, turn and walk. Additionally, the robot is comprised of a self-contained system that includes a battery, an actuator and a control unit.
Source: arXiv
“Zippy could be a resource for emergency search and rescue, industrial inspection, and even deployment to geologically interesting areas for scientific research.”
Capable of walking at a rate of 10 leg lengths per second — which is the equivalent of an average adult walking 19 miles per hour — Zippy is reportedly the fastest bipedal robot of any size by that metric, the researchers noted.
To enable locomotion, Zippy walks by lifting its front leg, shifting its center of gravity and then swinging its rear leg forward using momentum as well as a rounded front foot.
Rather than using servo motors for joint movement as is common among larger robots, Zippy features a mechanical hard stop that functions as a hip joint limit.
The team intends to eventually incorporate sensors like cameras into the design of the robot, enabling it to localize and autonomously navigate its environment.
Enhanced with such capabilities, the team envisions multiple "Zippies" working in concert, creating swarms to carry out inspection and search operations in hazardous, hard-to-reach environments.
The paper detailing the robot, “Zippy: The smallest power-autonomous bipedal robot,” appears in the journal arXiv.
For more on Zippy, watch the accompanying video that appears courtesy of Carnegie Mellon University’s College of Engineering.
