So far we have seen robots that can run insanely fast and navigate rugged terrain. This means that trying to hide from the robot uprising would be impossible as robots could basically outrun us and track us down even in remote locations. Soon it seems that even hiding behind a wall would be impossible as the folks at UC Berkeley have invented a robot that can jump a wall.
Dubbed SALTO (short for saltatorial locomotion on terrain obstacles), this is a tiny robot that according to its creators, has the “highest robotic vertical jumping agility ever recorded”, thanks to its ability to link together multiple jumps one after the other. The engineers have based SALTO on the galago, a species of primates from Africa.
According to Ronald Fearing, a professor of electrical engineering and computer sciences, “By combining biologically inspired design principles with improved engineering technology, matching the agile performance of animals may not be that far off.” So how high can SALTO jump?
When the engineers recorded it, it managed to jump a height of 1.008 meters. For the wall jump, they recorded SALTO attaining an average height of 1.21 meters. The researchers note that SALTO is definitely not the highest jumping robot in existence, but they do foresee its use in urban search and rescue environments.
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