Boing! Notebook Sized Robot Jumps 25 Feet

Sandia National Laboratories of New Mexico has developed the Precision Urban Hopper, a robot that uses one powerful leg to propel itself over barriers up to twenty-five feet high.

"The demonstrated hopping capability of the robots allows the small unmanned ground vehicles to overcome as many as 30 obstacles that are 40-60 times their own size. Hopping mobility has been shown to be five times more efficient than hovering when traversing obstacles at heights under 10 meters, which allows longer station-keeping time for the same amount of fuel," reads Sandia's press release.

Boston Dynamics is currently under contract to build it, with a planned delivery date of 2010.