Design and demonstration of a bio-inspired flapping-wing-assisted jumping robot

Jumping insects such as fleas, froghoppers, grasshoppers, and locusts take off from the ground using a catapult mechanism to push their legs against the surface of the ground while using their pairs of flapping wings to propel them into the air. Such combination of jumping and flapping is expected as an efficient way to overcome unspecified terrain or avoid large obstacles. In this work, we present the conceptual design and verification of a bio-inspired flapping-wing-assisted jumping robot, named Jump-flapper, which mimics jumping insects' locomotion strategy. The robot, which is powered by only one miniature DC motor to implement the functions of jumping and flapping, is an integration of an inverted slider-crank mechanism for the structure of the legs, a dog-clutch mechanism for the winching system, and a rack-pinion mechanism for the flapping-wing system. A prototype of the robot is fabricated and experimentally tested to evaluate the integration and performance of the Jump-flapper. This 23 g robot with assisted flapping wings operating at approximately 19 Hz is capable of jumping to a height of approximately 0.9 m, showing about 30% improvement in the jumping height compared to that of the robot without assistance of the flapping wings. The benefits of the flapping-wing-assisted jumping system are also discussed throughout the study.