Festo · legged machine
BionicKangaroo
A one-metre robotic kangaroo that jumps up to 40 cm high and 80 cm forward, using pneumatics for power and electric motors for the hip and tail. It was controlled by arm gestures through a wristband.
- Price
- —Not published
- Height
- 100 cmTaller than 45%
- Weight
- 7 kgHeavier than 16%
- Payload
- —Not published
- Speed
- —Not published
- Battery
- —Not published
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Why it matters
A hopping robot that stored landing energy in an elastic 'Achilles tendon' and reused it for the next jump.
Real-world use
No customers or deployments reported yet.
Timeline
- Released
- Not yet
Maker
FestoCompany · founded 1925 · Esslingen am Neckar, GermanyFamily-owned; about EUR 3.33 billion revenue and 20,600 staff (2025)
How it stacks up
Against other legged & novel that publish the figure. Pick a measure.
BionicKangaroo is taller than 45% of the 22 other legged & novel that publish a height. Bars show the 7 closest in date.
BionicKangaroo is heavier than 16% of the 25 other legged & novel that publish a weight. Bars show the 7 closest in date.
Not published by the maker: speed, payload, joints, battery, price.
Public attention
A historic robot: no longer sold or in use, so it is not ranked against current machines.
- 586 views of its Wikipedia article in the last 90 days (BionicKangaroo)
- 2 news stories from reputable press listed on this page
Measures how much people read and write about a robot, not how good it is. Measured 2026-10-14; same method for every robot. How it is measured
What’s inside
The parts the company has talked about publicly.
- Movement
- Walks on legs
- How it runs
- Assisted. A person directed its jumps with arm gestures through a wristband while it controlled its own jump and landing balance.
- Actuators & motors
- Pneumatic actuators drive the jumps; an elastic rubber tendon parallel to the knee cylinder stores landing energy and releases it on the next hop
- Battery & power
- Small on-board compressor or high-pressure air tank for the pneumatics, with lightweight batteries for the electronics
- AI & software
- Kinematic control system with condition monitoring corrects posture in flight and on landing; gesture control through a Thalmic Labs Myo armband
- Other details
- About 7 kg and 1 m tall; jumps 0.4 m high and 0.8 m forward; tail balances hip torque in flight
From the maker
BionicKangaroo is the only machine from Festo (Bionic Learning Network) in the atlas.
Watch BionicKangaroo
Made, sold and where
Unit counts are usually company figures; analysts often disagree.
- Price
- Not published
- How to get one
- No official buying page found
- Built
- Technology demonstrator from Festo's Bionic Learning Network
- Sold or delivered
- not sold
- Where it is sold or used
- Esslingen, Germany
News
The latest 2, newest first. Summaries are ours; tap through for the original.
- Kangaroo robot explores energy recovery
Australian Manufacturing described how Festo's kangaroo stores landing energy in an elastic tendon to reuse on the next jump.
Australian Manufacturing - Festo unveils hopping BionicKangaroo
Festo showed a 7 kg pneumatic kangaroo robot that recovers jump energy and is steered by arm gestures.
IEEE Spectrum
Sources
Figures come from the maker. Every link below backs something on this page.
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