Pinto: A latched spring actuated robot for jumping and perching
<|reference_start|>Pinto: A latched spring actuated robot for jumping and perching: Arboreal environments challenge current robots but are deftly traversed by many familiar animal locomotors such as squirrels. We present a small, 450 g robot "Pinto" developed for tree-jumping, a behavior seen in squirrels but rarely in legged robots: jumping from the ground onto a vertical tree trunk. We develop a powerful and lightweight latched series-elastic actuator using a twisted string and carbon fiber springs. We consider the effects of scaling down conventional quadrupeds and experimentally show how storing energy in a parallel-elastic fashion using a latch increases jump energy compared to series-elastic or springless strategies. By switching between series and parallel-elastic modes with our latched 5-bar leg mechanism, Pinto executes energetic jumps as well as maintains continuous control during shorter bounding motions. We also develop sprung 2-DoF arms equipped with spined grippers to grasp tree bark for high-speed perching following a jump.<|reference_end|>
@article{xu2024pinto:,
    title={Pinto: A latched spring actuated robot for jumping and perching},
    author={Christopher Y. Xu, Jack Yan, and Justin K. Yim},
    journal={arXiv preprint arXiv:2409.09203},
    year={2024},
    archivePrefix={arXiv},
    eprint={2409.09203},
    primaryClass={cs.RO}
}