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	Podcast:		UC Science Today
	Episode:		The most vertically agile robot every built
	Category:		Science & Medicine
	Duration:		00:01:03
	Publish Date:		2016-12-18 18:00:00
	Description:		This is Science Today. What can leap into the air, spring off a wall and perform multiple jumps in a row? That would be Salto – the most vertically agile, wall-jumping robot ever built. Roboticist Duncan Haldane, a doctoral candidate at the University of California, Berkeley, led the work. "The special thing about this robot is that it can jump higher and faster than any other robot that’s out there right now. Salto can jump better than a human; once it does that jump, Salto jumps again. So, we can do this really high-powered jumping behavior continuously and chain together these maneuvers made out of large leaps." Salto’s design was based on a galago – the most vertically agile animal in nature. These creatures have a special ability to store energy in their tendons so they can jump to heights not possible by muscles alone. This is done while in a crouched position. "So what we built into Salto the capability for a super crouch. What that allows is to have the motor be able to stretch out the spring and keep the robot crouched for longer." Such novel locomotive abilities could be used in search and rescue efforts. For Science Today, I’m Larissa Branin.
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