Powerful Multidirectional Pneumatic Jumper With Lightweight Fabric Chambers and Buckling-Controllable Elastic Beams

Jumping is an advantageous locomotion method to extend the motion range, overcome obstacles, and adapt to unstructured environments; however, it is challenging for robotic jumpers to simultaneously maintain structural compliance and achieve powerful, multidirectional jumping. This letter introduces a pneumatic-driven jumper that takes advantage of the snap-through buckling of elastic beams actuated by fabric chambers. The proposed design exploits the high energy density of the cross-shaped elastic beam and the lightweight feature of the fabric chamber, resulting in outstanding jumping performance. Parallel arranging two identical chambers inside one fabric actuator, the jumper can exhibit multidirectional jumping by selectively inflating different chambers. Experimental results show that the jumping height and length can be up to 1020 and 1025 mm; it can also effortlessly perform jumps under a 200-g payload, which is difficult for other jumpers. The proposed jumper can jump in three directions, including upward, forward, and backward, and execute continuous jumps by alternating positive and negative pressure. An untethered, self-powered soft jumper has also been developed, further demonstrating its potential for outdoor exploration, environmental detection and goods transportation via readily jumping over various terrains.