Bio-inspired Minimalist Mechanical Hopper

Motivation

For my class, Design Nature, our goal was to create a bio-inspired mechanism that would “hop” with a limited set of materials. It also required a “trigger” mechanism, a way for it to hop at a time after it has been placed into its starting position. For my animal, I chose the springtail.

Details

My hopper uses lasercut eucaboard as its main structure. A dowel links the main body to the tail. The actuator, a piece of rubber tubing, connects to both the end of the body and the tail, following a path set by more dowels. In its relaxed position, the rubber tubing is straight and the attachment points are as close together as possible. In its primed position, the tubing is bent into a U-shape around the body and tail. The trigger mechanism is a small piece of wooden dowel, attached to the main body, inserted into a piece of rubber tubing, attached to the tail.

You can see a video of it in action here. Like a springtail, it spins many times and gains height.