Abstract
In this paper, we propose a repeated impulse force generator by an active pantograph with a rubber as an energy storage. The proposed impulse force generator consists of a rubber which has high energy storage capacity per unit mass, only one motor and some generic mechatronics elements. A robot based on this impulse force generator has the repeated jumping capability to jump on the desk. The most important feature of this impulse force generator is that it can hold reaction forces of the rubber and release the stored elastic energy without additional trigger mechanisms. From numerical simulation based on a simple mechanical model, we show that this mechanism can make a large deformation in a very short time, which is utilized as impulse force generation. We show that the robot with a weight of 0.127[kg] achieves a jump up to the height of about 1.05[m], which means that the robot has the ability to jump onto a normal desk easily. We also show that the robot has a good payload characteristic, i.e., its jumping ability is not declined against payload variation by selecting an appropriate rubber with the optimal spring constant.
