Meet the Harvard Ambulatory Microrobot (or HAMR for short), a versatile, miniature robot that can run at high speeds, jump, climb, turn sharply, carry payloads and fall from great heights without being injured.

This cockroach-inspired bot was developed by Robert J. Wood, a professor of Engineering and Applied Sciences at Harvard University and core faculty member of the Harvard Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering.

“The HAMR platform evolved from our exploration of millimeter-scale fabrication and actuation strategies”, said Wood. “Our techniques allow us to create robots that don’t sacrifice complexity as the size is reduced and enabled us to create robots that rival some of the capabilities of their biological counterparts. These robots are as valuable for biological studies as they will eventually be for tasks such as search and rescue and infrastructure inspection.”

The HAMR weighs a slight 2.8 grams and is powered by an 8-mAh lithium-polymer battery. Unlike the Atlas Robot currently in development by General Dynamic, the HAMR currently requires a human operator, but this will likely change in the future.

Benjamin Goldberg, a researcher working on the project, told Digital Trends, “Tethered versions of HAMR have previously been shown to run at speeds exceeding 10 body lengths per second and can perform agile turning and dynamic jumping maneuvers. The most exciting development with HAMR-F is that we are now able to take the robot outside of the lab with an onboard battery an electronics, while still maintaining high speeds and maneuverability.”

You can see HAMR roaming the halls of Harvard… if you can find it.