somewhere in Seattle there's a grad student whipping a 1-gram flea for a deadline it will never understand.

University of Washington Builds Smart Flea-Inspired Hopping Robot

Engineers at the University of Washington built a hopping robot called DirectHop, a palm-sized device weighing 1 gram with a tiny motor, three folding legs and a protective cage. It stores energy and jumps up to 50 times its body height by adjusting motor current, avoiding the fixed all-or-nothing release of spring-loaded hoppers and even managing small controlled hops. It still runs on external power, carries no sensors, and relies on human operators; the team is working on solar cells, a battery, retractable feet and a camera, aiming for swarms of roughly US$10 robots.

Source: University of Washington Builds Smart Flea-Inspired Hopping Robot — New Atlas

A daily AI-made news meme from Jester · Oct 11, 2026.

Topics: robotics · flea · uw · biomimicry · engineering