Open-Source Jumper
KingKong Technology, a Beijing robotics company, has released an open source robot called Jumper, and its body is built like a crab. The machine carries six legs and 22 tactile servos and weighs 1.8 kilograms, so it walks, turns, and jumps on a frame closer to a crab than to a dog. KingKong says the same body can grasp objects as well as move, which sets it apart from a plain walking demo.
The sensing and control sit on a compact stack that is built for a small body. On board are a Rockchip RK3576 processor, a depth sensor, and a 5 MP camera, which together give the robot the information it needs to keep its footing. That is what allows a machine of this size to plan a step, correct a stumble, and hold a grip without a person steering every movement.
But the hardware is only part of the release. KingKong has also published an open source toolkit that lets a user describe a new movement in a single sentence, then train and test that motion in MuJoCo simulation, according to Pandaily. The aim is to let someone teach the robot a new skill without writing bespoke control code for every motion it learns.
A tripod gait is one movement the project explores. Jumping and grasping are two more, and each appears in KingKong's own repository as a simulated clip rather than footage of a working machine. Those clips are the maker's own, which makes them a fair record of the software and no proof of the robot itself.
So the toolkit works as a starting point rather than a finished product. KingKong also invites creators to change Jumper's appearance, so the shell and the scenes around the robot can be reshaped by outsiders. That framing turns the crab into a platform that other people are expected to extend.
The company keeps the door open for work from outside its own lab. And the pull for developers is the low barrier, because a movement can be described in plain language and trained in simulation before anyone touches the machine. What crosses from that simulation to the hardware is the question the project leaves open.
Deployment to real hardware has not yet been verified, and the project says as much on the record. The gap matters for anyone reading the simulated clips as proof of what Jumper can do in a room, on a floor, or beside a person. Until that step is shown, the claims rest on simulation and on the maker's own clips.
No price has been published for Jumper. That leaves anyone weighing the robot without a figure for the hardware and the toolkit. The company has not said when that number might appear.
KingKong has published Jumper as an open project rather than a sealed product. The toolkit is open, the hardware specifications are public, and the repository carries the simulation setup a developer needs to begin. And the crab layout sets it apart from the four legged robots that fill most small robot videos.
KingKong Technology has open sourced Jumper, a six legged crab robot that weighs 1.8 kilograms and carries 22 tactile servos
The robot runs on a Rockchip RK3576 processor with a depth sensor and a 5 MP camera
KingKong's toolkit lets a user describe a movement in one sentence and train it in MuJoCo simulation
The motion clips are simulated and come from KingKong's own repository, and deployment to real hardware is not yet verified
No price has been published for Jumper
Source: Pandaily
