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. 2023 Aug 1;8(4):339.
doi: 10.3390/biomimetics8040339.

A Small-Scale Hopper Design Using a Power Spring-Based Linear Actuator

Seon-Gyo Yang  1 , Dong-Jun Lee  1 , Chan Kim  2 , Gwang-Pil Jung  1
Affiliations

A Small-Scale Hopper Design Using a Power Spring-Based Linear Actuator

Seon-Gyo Yang et al. Biomimetics (Basel). .

Abstract

Hopping locomotion has the potential to enable small-scale robots to maneuver lands quickly while overcoming obstacles bigger than themselves. To make this possible, in this paper, we propose a novel design of a high-power linear actuator for a small-scale hopper. The key design principle of the linear actuator is to use a power spring and an active clutch. The power spring provides a near constant torque along the wide range of output displacement. The active clutch controls the moving direction and operation timing of the linear actuator, which enables the hopper to take off at the right timing. As a result, the hopper has a size of 143 mm, a mass of 45.9 g, and hops up to 0.58 m.

Keywords: bio-inspired robot; hopping robot; linear hopping.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
The proposed hopping robot. The robot has a height of 143 mm and weight of 46 g.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Overall design of the proposed hopping robot.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Overall hopping process. (a) Falling, (b) landing, (c) take-off, and (d) falling.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Output torque curves of a normal torsion spring and a power spring. Power spring has the central, flatter section showing constant torque.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Working process of the active clutch. (b) The clutch contacts the left side of the rack (a) and the rack moves downward. (c) The clutch contacts the right side of the rack and (d) the rack moves downward.
Figure 6
Figure 6
Force relation between the pinion gear and rack.
Figure 7
Figure 7
(a) Working algorithm of the active clutch and (b) the snapshots from landing to hopping.
Figure 8
Figure 8
(a) The measured torque of the power spring and (b) the measured force of the rack.
Figure 9
Figure 9
Schematic of the hopper’s model. Subscripts such as p and s denote the parallel spring and series spring, respectively.
Figure 10
Figure 10
(a) Acceleration, (b) reaction force, and (c) velocity of the mass center, from the simulated results.
Figure 11
Figure 11
Take-off velocity by varying the spring constants of the parallel and series springs.
Figure 12
Figure 12
(a) High-speed images and (b) the corresponding velocity during landing.
Figure 13
Figure 13
(a) Trajectory of the mass center during eleven hops. (b) Snapshots of the first and the second hopping.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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