Cambridge, United States - February 27, 2025 Springtails are tiny bugs. They crawl through garden soil and leaf litter. They’re great at jumping. Now, they’ve inspired a team at Harvard. The roboticists work at the John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS). They built a small robot. It walks and jumps. It can leap 23 times its body length. The study appeared in Science Robotics. This robot could lead to a big future. Agile microrobots might explore tough places alone. Robert J. Wood led the project. He’s a professor at SEAS. The robot upgrades the Harvard Ambulatory Microrobot (HAMR). HAMR first mimicked a cockroach. Now, it has a robotic “furcula.” This tail-like part copies a springtail’s trick. It snaps against the ground. The robot shoots up like a gymnast. “Springtails are everywhere,” Wood said. “They’ve been around forever. Their jump is fast. It’s like a quick punch. It sends them flying.” The robot uses a special trick. It’s called latch-mediated spring actuation. Energy stores in the furcula. Then it releases in a flash. It’s like a catapult. Nature uses this a lot. Think of a chameleon’s tongue. Or a mantis shrimp’s strike. Wood’s team made a punching robot before. This jump felt like the next move. “The furcula is simple,” said Francisco Ramirez Serrano. He’s the lead author. He was a SEAS fellow. “That simplicity hooked me.” The robot is tiny. It weighs like a paper clip. It fits in your palm. But it’s strong. It walks. It jumps. It climbs. It strikes. It even scoops things up. Its best jump is 1.4 meters. That’s a record for its size. Another robot jumps farther. But it’s 20 times heavier. “Our robot is more agile,” Serrano said. Building it was tough. The team used simulations. They tweaked every part. Linkages, energy, angles—all perfect. Wood’s lab made it happen. Their techniques are top-notch. This robot could change things. Imagine it in disaster zones. Or crawling through rubble. Humans can’t go there. “Walking is precise,” Wood said. “But it hits obstacles. Jumping gets past them. It’s less controlled. Both together work great.” They could handle wild places. For now, it’s a start. This springtail robot shows what’s possible. One day, it might leap into real action.