It wasn’t until a few years ago that the French company Parrot decided to start building robots. They weren’t really specialized in that field: they mostly made Bluetooth stuff, speakers, and some fantastic headphones. Recently, they’ve expanded their new family of robots, with a wheeled sumo robot that jumps.
In the Jumping Sumo (I have no idea where the “sumo” comes from), an actuated, spring-loaded tail can repeatedly launch this bot up to 80 cm. in the air, with a battery life of around 20 minutes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=eqAlsLFzBs4
Jumping Sumo has a tiny camera mounted to the front, and can be controlled from a smartphone or tablet, with a range of over 150 feet. With a built in gyro and two huge wheels on the sides, Jumping Sumo can do a variety of tasks, from jumping over obstacles to turning 90 degrees on a dime.
While Jumping Sumo still has some work to do to catch up to Boston Dynamic’s Sand Flea, it’s still quite impressive how much tech is now available to the consumer market.
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