Skip to footer

US Army tests robot that can jump 30 feet high

Developed by Boston Dynamics and Sandia National Labs, the Sand Flea reconnaissance robot can leap through a second-floor window. 

|
Youtube screenshot
Developed by Boston Dynamics for the US military, the Sand Flea jumping robot is capable of jumping 30 feet.

If you think that you might be safe from a robot uprising just because you live on the second floor, think again. A team of scientists have developed a reconnaissance robot that can jump 30 feet in the air and is precise enough to leap through a window two stories up.  

Developed by Boston Dynamics, an engineering firm based in Waltham, Mass., with funding from the Army's Rapid Equipping Force, the Sand Flea weighs 11 pounds and looks like a stripped-down RC car. Before jumping, the Sand Flea stops, rears back, and then fires a piston that launches it into the air.

The piston is powered by a CO2  charge. The Sand Flea can jump 25 times before the charge needs to be replaced.

The Sand Flea is an updated version of the Precision Urban Hopper, which was developed by Sandia National Laboratories. The Sand Flea improves upon its predecessor with a gyroscopic stabilization system that keeps it oriented as it jumps, making for improved video in midflight.

The Sand Flea has been sent to Army Test and Evaluation Command for evaluation. CNET reports that, if it passes, the Army will ship nine of them to Afghanistan, where they will join the roughly 2,000 other robots currently deployed there. 

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to US Army tests robot that can jump 30 feet high
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2012/0328/US-Army-tests-robot-that-can-jump-30-feet-high
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe