Scientists design robot that can jump higher than the Statue of Liberty

Scientists have designed a robot that could jump higher than the Statue of Liberty if humans were ever to build it.

With the invention of artificial intelligence, robots with incredible abilities are constantly being developed. Experts have built an AI-powered guide dog robot for visually impaired people, while developers are also working on a 15-foot tall robot that can explore the moon.

Now, engineers claim they have developed a design for a robot that will one day be able to jump 400 feet (120 metres) into the air – higher than New York City’s Statue of Liberty.

Experts developed the high-jumping technology in order to explore tricky terrain that other robot technology might have difficulty traversing, such as caves and forests.

There is even the potential that the high-jumping robots could be used to explore other planets like the Moon.

It was designed by experts at the University of Manchester and features prism-shaped legs that have springs. It is designed to maximise the amount of energy that is transferred during a jumping motion, allowing the robots to jump several times their own height.

Dr John Lo/University of Manchester

To experiment, they built a robot that was 15.7 inch (40 cm) tall and could jump over 5 feet (1.6 m) in the air.

Study co-author John Lo, a research associate in Space Robotics at the University of Manchester, explained: “While jumping robots already exist, there are several big challenges in the design of these jumping machines, the main one being to jump high enough to overcome large and complicated obstacles.

“Our design would dramatically improve the energy efficiency and performance of spring-driven jumping robots.”

The researchers’ next aim is to be able to control the direction of jump and to find a way of maximising the kinetic energy from landing to improve its overall efficiency.

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