San Francisco will play host to IROS 2011 (IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems) from September 25th onwards till the end of the month, and over there, you will be sure of seeing some really cool robots make their mark – so here is a quick sneak preview. How about a tiny robot which is capable of imitating the flea, by jumping more than 6 feet up in the air, kicking its legs out at the apex of the jump in order to glide back down to solid ground safe and sound instead of letting the earth’s gravitational pull send it back crashing into reality.
Tipping the scales at less than 100 grams, it comprises of a couple of four-bar mechanisms that include springs, making up its legs and wings. Additional work done on this robot is said to make it a decent alternative to small ground-based swarm robots, as it allows it to glide over rough or impassable terrain.
There is one problem though – how will it analyze the height and whether there are any obstacles in the way?