Tiny self-Powered Robot Breaks Speed, Agility Record with Simple Design

Standing under 1.5 inches tall—about the height of a LEGO minifigure—the world’s smallest self-contained bipedal robot can start on its own, walk over half a mile per hour, turn, skip, and climb small steps using only its built-in battery, actuator, and control system.

Nicknamed “Zippy” by its creators, the robot is the latest development from a project led by Aaron Johnson and Sarah Bergbreiter at Carnegie Mellon University. The initiative focuses on studying small-scale movement to design more advanced miniature walking robots.

Bipedal Robots Offer Advantage in Navigating Human-Centered Environments, Says Expert

“Bipedal robots handle uneven ground and obstacles more effectively than wheeled ones,” said Johnson, a mechanical engineering professor. “That’s why we’ve been exploring ways to simplify walking mechanisms to enable the creation of basic two-legged robots.”

Steven Man, a lead author of the study set to be presented at this year’s IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, highlighted both the challenges and significance of developing tiny, legged robots.

“They’re able to access confined areas that are unreachable for humans and even other robots,” he said. “Zippy could prove valuable for emergency search and rescue, industrial inspections, and exploring geologically significant sites for scientific study.”

Undergraduates Contribute to Zippy’s Design, Building on Previous Robot Innovation

Undergraduates Soma Narita and Josef Macera also served as lead authors, contributing to Zippy’s design, which was inspired by the team’s earlier steerable bipedal robot, Mugatu—featuring curved feet and a single hip actuator.

Zippy walks by raising its front leg and shifting its center of gravity, using its rounded front foot to create momentum that swings the back leg forward to complete the step. Due to its compact size, Zippy uses a mechanical hard stop as a hip joint limiter instead of a servo.

“Zippy’s compact size, combined with our mechanical tweaks, allows it to walk at an impressive speed of 10 leg lengths per second—the equivalent of an average adult running at 19 miles per hour,” said Bergbreiter, a mechanical engineering professor. “By that measure, Zippy is not only the smallest but also the fastest self-powered bipedal robot of any size.”

The team plans to equip Zippy with sensors, like cameras, for autonomous navigation. This would enable multiple robots to work together in tasks like inspection or search and rescue in hazardous environments.

Read the original article: Techxplore

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