MultiMo-Bat: A biologically inspired integrated jumping–gliding robot

TLDR

The study designs, builds, and evaluates a miniature jumping‑gliding robot, the MultiMo‑Bat, inspired by vampire bats and introduces metrics to quantify its integrated locomotion. The MultiMo‑Bat employs an integrated design that shares nearly 70 % of its mass between jumping and gliding modes, minimizing actuation and structural components, and is validated through prototype construction and experimental testing. The 115.6‑g robot achieves over 3 m jumps, high gliding performance, preserves more than 80 % of independent jumping capability, and demonstrates low mass and volume suitable for exploration and monitoring of unstructured environments.

Abstract

This paper presents the design, development, and verification of a miniature integrated jumping and gliding robot, the MultiMo-Bat, which is inspired by the locomotion strategy of vampire bats. This 115.6 g robot exhibits high jumping and gliding performance, reaching heights of over 3 m, to overcome obstacles in the environment. The MultiMo-Bat was developed by a novel integrated design strategy that combines jumping and gliding locomotion modes and minimizes the necessary actuation and structural components by sharing a significant portion of the components required for each mode; nearly 70% of the total robot mass is utilized by both modes. This results in overall low mass, low volume, and high co-operation between the modes which allows for the preservation of over 80% of the performance of the independent jumping locomotion mode when combined. This not only allows for two high-performance locomotion modes, but also for all of the necessary actuation components to be on board. Key considerations and components of the design are discussed in the context of the integrated design approach. A prototype of the system is constructed and experimentally tested in various configurations to elucidate the overall system and integration performance. Finally, metrics are developed to begin to quantify the level and performance of the integrated approach as well as allow it to be compared to other mechanical and biological systems. This type of jumping and gliding robot can be used to explore, inspect, and monitor unstructured environments for security and environment monitoring applications.