[Dr. Wilfried Stoll] and a team at Festo have created an incredible robot kangaroo. Every few years the research teams at Festo release an amazing animal inspired robot. We last covered their smartbird. This year, they’ve created BionicKangaroo (pdf link). While The Six Million Dollar Man might suggest otherwise, Bionics is use of biological systems in engineering design. In this case, Festo’s engineers spent two years studying the jumping behavior of kangaroos as they perfected their creation.
Kangaroos have some amazing evolutionary adaptations for jumping. Their powerful Achilles tendon stores energy upon landing. This allows the kangaroo to increase its speed with each successive jump. The kangaroo’s tail is essential for balancing the animal as it leaps through the air. The Festo team used a thick rubber band to replicate the action of the tendons. The tail is controlled by electric servomotors.
Festo is known for their pneumatic components, so it’s no surprise that the kangaroo’s legs are driven by pneumatic cylinders. Pneumatics need an air supply though, so the team created two versions of the kangaroo. The first uses an on-board air compressor. The second uses a high-pressure storage tank to drive the kangaroo’s legs. An off the shelf Programmable Logic Controller (PLC) acts as BionicKangaroo’s brain. The PLC monitors balance while controlling the pneumatic leg cylinders and electric tail motors. Unfortunately, BionicKangaroo isn’t completely autonomous. The Thalmic Labs Myo makes a cameo appearance in the video. The Kangaroo’s human controller commands the robot with simple arm movements.
While the BionicKangaroo is graceful in its jumps, it still needs a bit of help when turning and taking simple steps. Thankfully we don’t think it will be boxing anytime soon.
Looks like a jumping rat not a kangaroo.
Yeah I agree. They have done well but is nothing like a kangaroo in how it moves.
It’s ‘rat’ like because it has a small tail like a rat and not a thick heavy tail like a kangaroo. You can see in the section of the real kangaroo that it is using it’s tail to oppose the body rotation that would be caused by the forward force of it’s legs. As a result it’s body stays near horizontal and the force vector is focused forward. The other thing a real kangaroos can do is change direction drastically in a single bound. To achieve this they have very powerful claws.
well, what’s stopping you from making one more correct in your opinion?
It also appears to have no ability to deal with anything other than a flat surface. An entire team of engineers spent two years on this?
Reminds me more of “Hippety Hopper” in those old Looney Tunes. Poor Sylvester…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hippety_Hopper
I saw this a few days ago, and it’s pretty cool. I don’t get the “Steve Austin” joke though.
The 6 million dollar man/bionic man Steve Austin, not the wrestler. The phrase, “We can rebuild him, we have the technology” came from that show.
Now I just feel old.
“If you’re unimpressed by robot marsupials, gimme a ‘hell, yeah’.”
1:30 it s a red led for a butthole…
That’s how you know it’s evil.
Air cylinders make great actuators and are fairly inexpensive. The only problem though is that valves (and especially proportional valves) are ridiculously expensive
While I am sure this is more mechanically complex, this doesn’t seem up to par with previous Festo creations.
That’s a good video about a robot. Not like the fake Kuka advertisement….
Not really sure why all the negative comments. It’s a cool robot and it’s an interesting research topic.
Oh, and this: http://www.flixya.com/photo/1992771/Kangaroos-Punch-Amazing-Photo-Shot
“might suggest otherwise, Bionics is use of biological systems in engineering design.”
What?
Also, afaik, kangaroos don’t really box. What they’re trying to do is to grab your throat so they can strangle you do death.
And the kicking facilitates this how exactly?
They scratch and they kick. They don’t strangle, because that’s really hard to do without opposable thumbs.
Check out the emotionspheres from festo!
I think it is….neat, but falls short of “Hells Yeah”. Seems like they cut its range of motion short, like there should be at least 5 inches more push off and absorb.
How about a HaD bionic flea competition? How far can we launch a turd with 2 legs? Boing. A stupid flea jumps 3 feet. Boing.
The Sand Flea robot is more successful not only in jumping but in rolling about and falling off a building too.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6b4ZZQkcNEo
Nice research-purpose concept though.
They also have a RC dragonfly coming out later this month, unlike the failed project linked below festos ornithopter actually flys.
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/robot-dragonfly-micro-aerial-vehicle