Jumping requires high actuation power for achieving high speed in a short time. Especially, organisms and robots at the insect scale jump in order to overcome size limits on the speed of locomotion. As small jumpers suffer from intrinsically small power output, efficient jumpers have devised various ingenuous schemes to amplify their power release. Furthermore, semi-aquatic jumpers have adopted specialized techniques to fully exploit the reaction from water. We review jumping mechanisms of natural and robotic insects that jump on the ground and the surface of water, and compare the performance depending on their scale. We find a general trend that jumping creatures maximize jumping speed by unique mechanisms that manage acceleration, force, and takeoff duration under the constraints mainly associated with their size, shape, and substrate.
This work was supported by National Research Foundation of Korea (Grant Numbers 2018-052541 and 2021R1C1C1011872) and Korea Research Institute for defense Technology planning and advancement (KRIT) grant funded by the Korea government (DAPA [Defense Acquisition Program Administration]) (Grant Numbers KRIT-CT-22-006-01, Development of a platform for small-scale ground robot, 2023).This work was supported by National Research Foundation of Korea (Grant Numbers 2018\u2010052541 and 2021R1C1C1011872) and Korea Research Institute for defense Technology planning and advancement (KRIT) grant funded by the Korea government (DAPA [Defense Acquisition Program Administration]) (Grant Numbers KRIT\u2010CT\u201022\u2010006\u201001, Development of a platform for small\u2010scale ground robot, 2023).
