iHop: A Self-Balancing Robotic Pogo Stick [Video]

“iHop” is a toy robot that can hop. It uses two independently actuated arms in order to simultaneously hop and balance in the lateral plane. The “sagittal” plane is stabilized by torque applied to the two drive wheels (note that the wheels are, for the most part, stationary due to the lack of disturbances about this axis). The symmetric design allows it to hop on either end of the central “leg”, enabling cartwheeling maneuvers (stay tuned).

[Via]