Roboticists showcase tiny, frog-like robot that can hop across wet surfaces and swim

The animal kingdom has influenced several robot designs over the years to solve fundamental challenges in propulsion and movement — from horses to insects .

Now, frogs are the latest creatures to inspire roboticists.

As seen in a new study published Sept.

18 in the journal Science Advances , researchers probed how twisting bent elastic rods could produce a "snapping motion" that enabled a small robot to hop or swim.

This mechanism could be used to improve robots with limited power and ones that need to traverse rough terrain and even water, the scientists said in the study.

They also built a prototype to demonstrate the work.

The palm-sized robot weighs just 3.4 ounces, or about as much as a deck of playing cards.

It moves about three body lengths per second — launching itself forward with short jumps.

"The broader opportunity is to let the mechanics of the robot do some of the work that would otherwise require larger motors or more complicated control," Xiaonan (Sean) Huang , an assistant professor of robotics at the University of Michigan and co-first author of the study, said in a statement .

"By programming when an elastic structure stores and rapidly releases energy, we can give small robots access to powerful, repeatable motions without continuously demanding high output from the motor," Huang explained.

"In the future, this principle could be useful for robots that must navigate cluttered terrain, overcome obstacles, reorient quickly, or operate across both land and water." Snap movements When a flexible rod bends and its ends are rotated, it can eventually reach a point where it changes shape to release built-up tension, the roboticists said.

However, this change does not always happen in the same way.

Some combinations of bending and twisting cause the rod to change shape gradually, while other combinations force it to snap rapidly from one shape to another, with the potential to provide a strong push.

The team used computer modeling and experimentation with a robotic arm to repeatedly deform the rods and find an optimal shape.