Differential jumping: A novel mode for micro-robot navigation

Jumping is an effective navigation mode for micro-robots. Recent research has addressed significant challenges that exist in developing reliable, energy efficient, light weight micro actuation mechanisms, mostly focused on a single jump. However, there has been limited exploration of planning strategies to enable multi-hop navigation requiring turning and obstacle avoidance. This work introduces the concept of differential jump, generated by asymmetrical thrust from multiple thrusters, as a viable mode for navigation in micro-robots to enable turning during a jump. We present a simplified differential jump model, derive state propagation equations and adapt a sampling based motion planner to compute trajectories for such a system among obstacles in simulation. We further present an early prototype of a micro-robot (≈ 70mm cube) capable of navigation on a planar surface among obstacles using the differential jump mechanism presented.