Click beetle inspires jumping robots for machinery and crop inspection

A new study led by mechanical sciences and engineering professor Sameh Tawfick demonstrates a series of click beetle-sized robots small enough to fit into tight spaces, powerful enough to manoeuvre over obstacles and fast enough to match an insect’s rapid escape time. The findings are published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Researchers at the U. of I. and Princeton University have studied click beetle anatomy, mechanics and evolution over the past decade. A 2020 study found that snap buckling – the rapid release of elastic energy – of a coiled muscle within a click beetle’s thorax is triggered to allow them to propel themselves in the air many times their body length, as a means of righting themselves.

“One of the grand challenges of small-scale robotics is finding a design that is small, yet powerful enough to move around obstacles or quickly escape dangerous settings,” Tawfick said in a statement.

In the new study, Tawfick and his team used tiny coiled actuators that pull on a beam-shaped mechanism, causing it to slowly buckle and store elastic energy until it is spontaneously released and amplified, propelling the robots upward.