Development of an Artistic Robot "Jumping Joe"

In this paper, we describe the design, modeling, simulation and implementation of an entertainment robot named "Jumping Joe". Jumping Joe, an artistic and agile robot, can perform several rapid movements such as fast wake up, jumping and somersault. In order to realize acrobatic movements, four different actuators which can create the high-speed movements are developed. Jumping Joe with eight DOF, which are two DOF in each hip joint and one DOF in each knee joint and each foot, can also perform the routine movements of a legged robot such as standing, walking etc. First we describe the principle of the developed actuators. Second we investigate the feasibility of the special movements performed by our artistic robot through simulations using 3D dynamical analysis software. Next we show experimentally that a prototype of our artistic robot "Jumping Joe" can demonstrate all the above rapid movements.