As part of an ongoing DARPA project, Sandia has developed a small GPS guided, unmanned ground vehicle that can jump over and/or onto obstacles up to 9 meters high. The current design uses a combustion powered linear piston actuator that rotates about an actuated pivot to place the foot of the hopping mechanism on the ground at a 70 degree angle between the piston and the ground. The current vehicle’s ability to make precise hops through specified target locations such as windows and to “stick” accurate landings on small target locations without excessive bouncing is limited by the fixed hopping angle design, variations in hopping surface properties such as hardness, soil density, and ground undulations, and unpredicted and uncompensated vehicle tumbling both during flight and in the time between contacting the ground and coming to rest. A new vehicle design is envisioned that would allow for greater precision guided hopping and landing in varied terrain.

In this Request for Information, Sandia is seeking statements of interest from a a commercial contractor(s) to design, build, and test a small, lightweight hopping vehicle (the “Precision Urban Hopper” or the “vehicle”) that will improve precision hop performance versus the current design. This vehicle will incorporate Sandia’s unique subsystems including detailed specifications for the hopping actuator, fueling system, electronics, communications systems, and software. The CONTRACTOR will develop the chassis, wheels, motors, drivetrain, video cameras, payload bays, and system(s) to improve precision hopping and landing performance. The CONTRACTOR may choose to use Sandia’s current designs for tires, batteries and fuel tanks or to develop alternatives, but must meet the technical specifications described below. Any additional electronics, software, or communications systems required to implement the CONTRACTOR’s approach to improved precision hopping must be compatible with Sandia’s systems. Sandia will work with the CONTRACTOR on the mechanical design of the vehicle including the integration of the Sandia provided subsystems. The development of the system will consist of four phases: a preliminary design phase, a critical design phase, a fabrication and integration phase, and a testing phase.

If you're thinking that science fiction writers predicted this device - you're right. And took it to the ultimate state.

In his 1994 novel Heavy Weather, Bruce Sterling wrote about a device called a "dope mule robot:"

It was crossing the hills with vast, unerring, twenty-meter leaps. A squat metal sphere, painted in ragged patches of dun and olive drab. It had a single thick, pistoning metal leg.

The bounding robot whipped that single metal leg around with dreadful unerring precision, like some nightmare one-legged pirate. It whacked its complex metal foot against the earth like a hustler's cue whacking a pool ball, and it bounded off instantly...
(Read more about the dope mule robot)

You'll want to jump right on these hopping robot stories:

• Jollbot Robot Ball Jumps, Bounces And Rolls
  Jollbot presents a unique solution to the problem of navigating rough terrain here on Earth - and on other planets. With video.
• Prototype Jockey-Ridden Hopping Robot
  Expensive and uncooperative animals to be phased out in favor of hopping robots. With video.
• Hopping Robot Sets Record
  Watch the "grasshopper robot" do its stuff in the video.