Disney Has Invented A One-Legged Hopping Robot

Researchers at Disney Research have invented a one-legged hopping robot that can bounce 19 times without falling over. The project which is lead by Zachary Batts, Jooyung Kim, and Katsu Yamane started off as a computer simulation and ended as a hardware product. The robot's single leg uses a technology called a linear elastic actuator in parallel or LEAP. The robot can jump for about seconds before toppling - or about as long as Tigger can hop on his tail before he crashes into something. The researchers wrote "The LEAP mechanism comprises a voice coil actuator in parallel with two compression springs, which gives our robot passive compliance. An actuated gimbal hip join is realized by two standard servomotors."