Meet Salto, the high jumping rescue robot inspired by the African bush baby
Researchers hope Salto will help emergency workers by navigating rubble following natural disasters
An agile jumping robot that was inspired by some of the animal world’s best leapers could one day help in rescue efforts after earthquakes or building collapses, US scientists said Tuesday.
Known as Salto, the 10-inch-tall robot can jump higher than a bullfrog and almost as high as a galago, or bush baby, a small primate found in Africa.
The robot can jump one metre in less than one second, according to the report in the journal Science Robotics. That’s better than a human but not the highest of any robot – other machines have been made that can jump more than three meters in a single leap.
Our goal was to have a search-and-rescue robot small enough to not disturb the rubble further
Salto does hold the crown in vertical-jumping agility, which researchers define as the ratio of the maximum jump height to the time it takes to complete one jump.
“To have a high vertical-jumping agility, you have to be able to jump high and do it quickly,” explained Duncan Haldane, a researcher at the University of California, Berkeley, and lead author of the study.
According to co-author Justin Yin: “Salto can jump to a height of one meter in 0.58 seconds and be immediately ready to jump again.”
This means Salto can achieve a vertical-jumping agility of 1.75 meters per second, the highest such ratio of any robot to date. It also attains 78 per cent of a galago’s vertical-jumping agility.
Salto, which stands for “saltatorial locomotion on terrain obstacles,” weighs just 100 grams. The one-legged robot can jump from the floor, flip forward and then kick off a wall, reaching even greater heights.