From animals to jumping robots: A teaching experience on bioinspired robotics

This work describes a teaching experience in bioinspired robotics, in which students were asked to design jumping robots inspired by animals. This bioinspired robotics course is offered to Master’s students in mechanical engineering with the aim of teaching them how to improve the efficiency and maneuverability of robots by drawing inspiration from biological locomotion strategies and enhancing their creativity through a bioinspired approach. This class emphasized translating biological principles into useful robots, and students based their designs upon locusts and Salticidae, two very effective species in their energy use. The students focused on mechanical design, energy storage and release approaches, and control strategies. The resulting prototypes emphasize that bioinspired solutions can offer effective strategies for robust and dynamic locomotion in robotics. In addition, it demonstrates the importance of bioinspired projects and how they can provide students with the interdisciplinary foundation needed to work in biology, mechanics, and robotics.