Analysis and Simulation of a Jumping Robot

Actuated by Shape Memory Alloy

Thanhtam Ho and Sangyoon Lee

Abstract This paper reports design, analysis, and simulation of a mesoscale robot
that is designed to locomote by jumping. Jumping can be quite advantageous over
other locomotion ways on the ground, especially in terms of ability of obstacle
avoidance. First bioinspired design of a jumping mechanism using only one shape
memory alloy (SMA) spring is introduced. The use of SMA spring reduces the weight
and the complexity of the robot. Then design of a landing mechanism and analysis on
stable landing are described. The robot is designed in order for its center of gravity
(COG) to lie inside the safety cone. Methods for choosing optimum parameters in the
robot design such as the spring stiffness and the tilt angle are also presented through
mechanical analysis and simulation.
Keywords Mobile robot Jumping robot Shape memory alloy

1 Introduction
For ability of mesoscale robots to avoid obstacles, jumping can be considered as
the most advantageous locomotion way on the ground [1]. Some robots are reported
to be able to jump ten times as high as the body height [2, 3]. Besides, the jumping locomotion can be advantageous in terms of the travel speed and the energy
efficiency [1].
However, realization of controlled jumping for mobile robots has been challenging. One of the most significant problems is the ability of stable landing. It is found
that even natural expert jumpers like grasshoppers or froghoppers sometimes fall
on their backs during landing [4]. It is quite a difficult problem to achieve the
ability of stable landing as well as outstanding jumping performance in terms of
jumping height and distance. For example, the jumping robot Grillo [4] possesses
T. Ho S. Lee (B)
Department of Mechanical Design and Production Engineering,
Konkuk University, Seoul, Korea
e-mail: slee@konkuk.ac.kr
Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016
E. Menegatti et al. (eds.), Intelligent Autonomous Systems 13,
Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing 302,
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-08338-4_95

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T. Ho and S. Lee

outstanding jumping distance, but it does not have the stability to land stably. Jollbot [5] and the four-legged jumping robot described in [6] can recover their stable
posture after landing but the jumping ability is relatively poor. On the other hand,
miniature spherical-shaped jumping robot described in [3] shows promising results
in both jumping performance and the landing stability.
In order to achieve the stability in landing as well as a good jumping ability for
a mesoscale robot, jumping principles of insects are first studied. In particular the
froghoppers jumping mechanism is of our interest. As for actuators, spring-type
shape memory alloy (SMA) is chosen instead of conventional actuators, which is
mainly for reducing the weight. The idea of using SMA actuator for jumping robot
was introduced in [6]. However jumping performance and efficiency of the robot
in [6] are unsatisfactory and the structure is complicated. This work presents a new
jumping robot design to overcome the weakness.

2 Materials and Methods

The proposed jumping robot is designed to consist of two modules: a body module
and a leg module, which are equivalent to a jumping mechanism and a landing
mechanism, respectively.

2.1 Nitinol Shape Memory Alloy (SMA) Actuator

Shape memory alloy (SMA) is one of the smart materials which can contract when
heated and memorize its shape. Outstanding mechanical properties of SMA make it
become promising for various application fields like sensor, actuator, and biomedical
applications. Ni-Ti (Nickel-Titanium) alloy is the most common type because of its
performance and reliability [7]. Compared to the standard thermal movement of
metal, deformation of SMA can be up to 100 times larger [8].
Nitinol alloy is used in several forms such as straight tensile wires, helical springs,
cantilever spring. The helical extension spring Nitinol is suitable for the application
that requires a large displacement like robot actuator. A Nitinol expansion spring
from Images Scientific Instruments [8] is used for this work as the robot actuator.
The Nitinol spring is made of 0.75 mm diameter SMA wire in the form of 6 mm
diameter coils. The original length of the spring is about 29 mm while in cooling
condition and it can be extended to 140 mm when heated. Figure 1 shows SMA
spring in the two working conditions.
The weight of SMA spring is about 1 g. With a load of 800 g applied, the length
can change from 60 to 29 mm in 0.7 s when the electric voltage of 12 VDC is applied.
It means that the spring can carry a load 800 times as heavy as its weight and the
displacement is equal to its length. Therefore, the SMA spring can be quite suitable
for a jumping mechanism that requires a large amount of energy for taking off.

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Fig. 1 SMA spring in two working phases

In addition, the displacement occurs in the straight line, so it can be transferred

directly to the energy storage system.
The SMA spring also has disadvantages in terms of power consumption and
response time. Experiments show that quite a large amount of heat remains in the
SMA spring after a full contraction. The remaining heat not only reduces the efficiency but also causes the slow release of the actuator. The problem can be solved by
using the pulse-width modulation (PWM) signal as well as the low voltage supply
source. Although this method may lengthen the contraction time but it can reduce the
remaining heat and shorten the cooling process as a result. When 12 VDC is used,
the contraction time is about 2.3 s shorter than that for the PWM method. However,
the release time in the first case is 5 s longer compared to the second case. Therefore,
the total time can be reduced if the PWM signal is utilized.

2.2 Design of a Jumping Mechanism

As for design of a jumping mechanism, a bioinspired design approach was used for
designing an energy storage system and an energy release system. Burrows and his
colleagues reported that the froghopper can obtain the jumping height of 700 mm,
which is about 100 times its body length [9]. Analysis on the structure of froghopper
reveals that the energy generated by the trochanter muscle is stored in the strengthened
thoracic cuticle that contains resilin [10].
The jumping mechanism of a froghopper can be modeled as the one composed
of an actuator, an energy storage system, and a one-way latch. The mechanism
is designed to work such that the energy generated by the actuator can be stored
gradually in the energy storage system and released quickly by the action of the
latch. A froghopper uses a kind of latch mechanism when preparing for jumping. In
preparing for jumping, the leg is rotated and the coxal protrusion acts as a latch to
lock the femur of the leg. This process is for storing the energy. A similar jumping
mechanism is also found in other outstanding jumpers like the flea. Such a principle
was adopted but applied it to the robot design in a simplified way: minimization of the
degree of freedom (DOF) of jumping mechanism to one. In the design, spring-type

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T. Ho and S. Lee

Fig. 2 Jumping mechanism

of the proposed jumping
robot

shape memory alloy was used as the only actuator for the robot. The model of the
jumping mechanism is shown in Fig. 2.
The bioinspired design approach was also applied to energy release system of the
jumping mechanism. When the froghopper prepares for jumping, the coxal protrusion
acts as a latch that keeps the femoral protrusion. The latch is quickly unlocked when
the froghopper performs jumping and the stored energy is immediately released [10].
In the robot design, the hook component in Fig. 2 plays the same role as the one-way
latch. The SMA spring has quite a slow response when it is relaxed. The use of hook
is the key solution to overcome the slow response problem.
One cycle of jumping action can be divided into three phases: preparation, jumping, and recovery. In the preparation phase, the SMA spring is activated by the
application of electric voltage. In Fig. 2, the contraction force FS of the SMA spring
rotates the crank clockwise around its center. Since the crank is in contact with the
hook of the leg, the crank pulls the hook upward relative to the body base. As a result
of the motion of hook, the expansion spring is extended and the elastic force Fk is
formed. The elastic force of the spring acts on the hook in the opposite direction of
the crank force. However this force is minor compared to the pulling force of the
crank, and so the hook moves upward as a result. The preparation phase is completed
when the hook reaches its highest position. The contact point between the hook and
the crank at this moment is called the transition point, where the extension of the
spring and the elastic force becomes the largest.
The next phase is jumping where the energy release system takes a major role.
When the crank moves beyond the transition point, its constraint with the hook is
lost. Since the pulling force of the spring is extremely large, the body module is

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accelerated upward quickly, and the robot jumps up to the air. As shown in Fig. 2 the
robot body is set with a skew angle respect to the vertical direction. By this setting
the robot can obtain both forward and upward jumping in the parabolic path.
The recovery phase is started after the robot jumps into the air. In this phase the
electric voltage supply applied to the SMA spring is also stopped. The self-cooling
process begins and the temperature of the SMA spring is reduced gradually. Since the
one-way type SMA is used in this work, the reduction of temperature does not help
the coil to recover the initial length. In this case a small torsion spring installed at the
revolute joint of the crank plays an important role. The torsion spring is compressed
when the crank is rotated in the preparation phase. In the recovery phase, the torsion
spring rotates the crank counterclockwise such that the crank can return to the initial
location and prepare for the next jumping.

2.3 Design of a Landing Mechanism

Consecutive jumping is required for successful locomotion and stable landing is
the most important ability for consecutive jumping. Since only one SMA spring is
installed for the jumping mission, the landing motion must be implemented passively.
The idea of passive landing mechanism can be found on other jumping robots such
as a self-stabilization jumper [11] or a miniature jumping robot [3]. For these robots,
cylindrical or spherical shells are utilized to enclose the robot body. The system of
robot and shell is designed to work such that the center of mass is concentrated near
the bottom. Due to the effect of gravity, the robots can recover their standing pose
without any actuation. In the proposed design, a spherical frame is composed of the
base with a ring shape and four circular carbon rods, as shown in Fig. 3.
Fig. 3 Overall shape of the
proposed jumping robot

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T. Ho and S. Lee

3 Analysis
3.1 Mechanical Analysis on Jumping
In this analysis, the jumping mechanism is modeled as the leg/foot part and the body
module are connected by the expansion spring. Let k be the stiffness of the expansion
spring while M and m be the masses of the body and the leg/foot part, respectively.
The analysis is based on the assumption that the friction between foot and ground is
sufficient to prevent the robot from skidding on the ground.
This analysis is applied only to the preparation and the jumping phases of jumping
cycle. These two phases have a significant effect on the jumping height of the robot.
When the preparation phase ends, the expansion spring is fully extended and the
robot body lies at its lowest position. This state can be called the full energy storage
state. After this moment the spring is unlocked, the spring has maximum extension
l 0 . Due to the extreme large spring force, the body begins moving upward along the
leg axis. It is noted that the spring also applies the same force to the leg (and frame)
but in the opposite direction. This force pushes and keeps the frame on the ground.
This implies that jumping does not happen yet at that moment, although the body is
moving upward relative to the leg/frame. Figure 4 shows free body diagram of the
robot in this phase. As shown in Fig. 4, the body is under the application of three
forces: the gravity force (P), the spring force (F), and the drag force (F d ).
By using Newtons second law, the position of the body, x, is expressed by
F Fd P cos = Ma

Fig. 4 Springmass model

of the jumping mechanism
and free body diagram of the
robot body

(1)

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Here the drag force F d includes damping component of the spring and fiction between
robot body and leg. The equation of motion can be derived as
d2x
dx
+ 2 0
+ 02 x = g cos
2
dt
dt

(2)

The general solution of the motion equation is obtained as


 g cos
x(t) = Ae 0 t cos t +
02

(3)

Since the second component on the right side of (3) is much smaller than the initial
displacement of the spring, it is neglected.
Using the initial conditions, one can find parameters and A:


0
= arctan

A=

= arctan 

(4)

1 2

l0
cos ()

(5)

At the end of this release process, the spring recovers its original length and all
the energy is released. This is called the verge of takeoff state. The travel time of the
body is computed in (6) and the velocity is shown in (7).


x(t1 ) = 0 = Ae 0 t1 cos t1 + t1 =
V = v(t1 ) = Ae 0 t1

(6)
(7)

One may note that after this state, the body will collide with the leg part. The
collision is assumed perfectly inelastic. After the collision two masses are joined
together, and the whole robot now takes off from the ground with the common
velocity v. The law of conservation of momentum is applied for the moments before
and after the collision. Then the takeoff velocity of the whole robot is obtained as
v=

M Ae 0 t1
MV
=
(M + m)
(M + m)

(8)

In the jumping phase, only gravity acts as the external force on the robot. Therefore, acceleration of the robot in y direction is g while that in x direction is zero.
The velocity of the robot is unchanged in x direction. The maximum jumping height
and jumping distance are computed by the law of energy conversation (see Fig. 5).

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T. Ho and S. Lee

Fig. 5 Locus of jumping

h max =

xmax =

v2y
2g

v2 cos2
2g

M 2 A2 e2 0 t1 2 sin 2
g (M + m)2

(9)

(10)

3.2 Analysis on Stable Landing

Although a spherical frame is necessary for stable landing but it is not a sufficient
condition. The position of COG of the robot is another important condition. Both the
robot leg and the carbon rods are installed on a ring base with thickness of t. When
COG of the whole structure lies below the sphere center, the robot can recover the
standing pose after the jump. However, the effect of the ring thickness can have a
negative effect on landing.
Figure 6 illustrates such a situation where the frame leans against the ring edge. In
a situation the robot may fail to recover its standing posture. In the figure, C denotes
the sphere center, T is for the contact point between the sphere and ground, and M
is the middle point of the ring. The frame leans on the ring at the point S, which
is the transition point. The vertical line drawn from S cuts the centerline CM at the
point K . If the mass center lies on the right side of the vertical line SK, the robot is
able to roll over the transition point to achieve stable landing. Since the location of
K is important for the stable landing, it is necessary to determine this position in the
robot design.
Let r and d be the radius of the sphere and the diameter of the ring, respectively.
Then the length of CM and TS are determined as follows:

CM =

r2

d2
4


+t

(11)

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Fig. 6 A critical situation in

landing





d2

2
+ t2
r
T S = 2t
4

(12)

The calculation leads to the result that COG of the robot must be arranged within the
cone. The circular base of the cone is the ring and its apex is the limit point K . The
cone holding the COG is called the safety cone.

4 Computer Simulation
This section presents computer simulation and results to validate the design and
analysis. All the simulation work was conducted using Working Model 2D simulation
software. Using AutoCAD, a 2D CAD model was made and was imported to the
simulation model directly. In order to prevent slip, the friction coefficient between
the robot foot and the ground was set to be approximately 1. The masses of the body
and the spherical cage were set 13 and 4 g, respectively. The cage diameter was set
130 mm, which is approximately the same as the robots height.
The first simulation was conducted in order to find the effect of spring displacement on the jumping height. While both stiffness and maximum displacement of the
spring were changed, the resultant spring force was kept constant. Simulation results
for four samples are shown in Fig. 7. The results indicate that although the spring
stiffness is fixed, the jumping height of the robot can be improved significantly by
increasing the spring displacement.
It is noted that a large displacement of the spring has a significant impact on the
cost of robot design in terms of the size and the weight. Therefore, the third parameter
set (l 0 = 25.27 mm, k = 0.22 N/mm) was selected for further simulation to increase
the jumping performance without much cost for the robot design.
In the second simulation, structural parameters of the robot were fixed while only
the tilt angle was changed. Damping coefficient c of spring was set 0.5 Ns/m for

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T. Ho and S. Lee

Fig. 7 Relation be jumping

height and spring
displacement

Table 1 Theoretical model parameters

Symbol
Parameter
0

A
V
v

Undamped angular frequency

Damping ratio
Damped angular frequency
Phase angle
Vibration magnitude
Body speed before collision
Takeoff velocity

Value
125.36 rad/s
0.142
124.1
0.142 rad
0.0255 m
2.475 m/s
2.04 m/s

both simulation and theoretical calculation. As a result, theoretical model parameters

are obtained as in Table 1.
Figure 8 shows the theoretical jumping locus and Fig. 9 presents maximum jumping height and distance at various tilt angles for both theory and simulation. It is
found from Fig. 9 that the theoretical and simulation jumping performances are quite
comparable: jumping height and jumping distance for the simulation are 93 and
90 % for the theory, respectively. A large tilt angle can cause the collision between
the robot body and the spherical frame when the spring is extended. This can also
move the COG of the robot out of the safety cone, and the stable landing may not be
achieved as a result. Therefore, the tilt angle from 20 to 25 degree is considered as
suitable choice to attain good jumping performance as well as stable landing.
In the third simulation, landing of the robot was tested. The spring stiffness k and
the tilt angle were set 0.25 N/mm and 20 degree, respectively. Using the actual
configuration parameters from the design and simulation model, the location of the
apex K of the safety cone was set about 40 mm higher than the bottom of the robot
or 20 mm below the sphere center. In this simulation, the robot COG was set at three
different locations within the safety cone. The first position is close to the apex K

Analysis and Simulation of a Jumping Robot

Fig. 8 Theoretical jumping locus for various tilt angles

Fig. 9 Relation between jumping height and distance and tilt angle

Fig. 10 Jumping and landing of the robot

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of the cone, the second one is near the base ring, and the third location is set at the
middle of the cone. Simulation results show that for all the conditions, the robot
was able to recover its standing posture successfully after contacting the ground.
Figure 10 presents a jumping and landing motion of the robot.

5 Conclusion
This paper presents design, analysis, and simulation of a mesoscale jumping robot.
Outstanding characteristics of the proposed SMA jumping robot are threefold: design
of the jumping mechanism inspired from a froghopper enables the robot to obtain
high and far jumping. The use of SMA spring reduces the weight and the complexity
of the robot, and the locomotion efficiency can be enhanced as a result. Landing is
a critical issue in the jumping locomotion. The use of balance cage can be a good
solution to the landing. The robot is designed in order for its COG to lie inside the
safety cone. By this design and the effect of the gravity, the robot is able to return to
the standing posture after jumping. Optimum parameters in the robot design such as
the spring stiffness and the tilt angle were also presented through mechanical analysis
and simulation.
Acknowledgments This research was supported by Leading Foreign Research Institute Recruitment Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry
of Science, ICT & Future Planning (MSIP) (2010-00525).

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