Boston Dynamics is showing off their newest innovation with this video of their Sand Flea Jumping Robot in action. It looks like a flask with wheels, or one of those RC cars that can flip end over end and keep wheeling, but the Sand Flea is so much more:
Sand Flea is an 11-lb robot with one trick up its sleeve: Normally it drives like an RC car, but when it needs to it can jump 30 feet into the air. An onboard stabilization system keeps it oriented during flight to improve the view from the video uplink and to control landings.
While the Sand Flea is currently in development for use in military applications, I’ll be surprised if RC cars don’t integrate the awesome jumping feature into their own models in the near future.
