System design of the Ultra Mobility Vehicle: A driving, balancing, and jumping bicycle robot
Trials cyclists and mountain bike riders can hop, jump, balance, and drive on one or both wheels. This versatility allows them to achieve speed and energy efficiency on smooth terrain and agility over rough terrain. Inspired by these athletes, we present the design and control of a robotic platform, Ultra Mobility Vehicle (UMV), that combines a bicycle and a reaction mass to move dynamically with minimal actuated degrees of freedom. We used a simulation-driven design optimization process to synthesize a spatial linkage topology with a focus on vertical jump height and momentum-based balancing on a single wheel contact. Using a deep reinforcement learning (RL) framework, we demonstrate zero-shot transfer of diverse athletic behaviors, including track stands, jumps, wheelies, rear-wheel hopping, and front flips. This 23.5-kilogram robot is capable of high speeds ([Formula: see text] = 8 meters per second) and jumping on and over large obstacles (1-meter tall or 130% of the robot's nominal height).
Authors
- Shamel Fahmi (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0892-7359)
- Kenny Sharma
- Velin D. Dimitrov (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3072-8962)
- Scott Biddlestone
- Ashwin Khadke (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0246-3642)
- Gabe Nelson (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0007-0962-2921)
- Farbod Farshidian (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8269-6272)
- Marco Hutter (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4285-4990)
- Annika Wollschläger (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1358-9315)
- Howie Choset (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5434-7945)
- Daniel J. Gonzalez (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3892-1748)
- Fabian Jenelten (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1851-2875)
- Igor Bogoslavskyi (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0009-3964-5993)
- Samuel Zapolsky (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0004-2938-7920)
- Jan Preisig (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0002-9301-9386)
- Arianna Ilvonen
- James Tigue
- Asa M. Eckert-Erdheim (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9261-889X)
- Henry Mayne
- Benjamin Bokser (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0001-1616-5104)
- Al Rizzi
- Yu-Ming Chen
- Kaiyu Zheng (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4751-2284)
- Bilal Hammoud
- Ravi Boggavarapu
- Nicole Lin (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0004-6399-4652)
- Liana Margolese
- Sean Mayorga
- Alex Bahner
- Kim Ang
- Dean Molinaro (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9725-854X)
- Itic Tinman (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0002-3865-3907)
- Paul Drews
- Aaron Preston
- Laura Lee (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0004-8970-9127)
- Oscar Frias (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0004-2516-3700)
- Rick Burnham
- Surya Singh (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8112-4547)
- Sangbae Kim (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0005-7400-8501)
- Tyler McCollum
- David Perry (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0004-4855-4886)
- William Moyne (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0005-5214-3999)
Institutions
- University of Washington (US)
- Robotics and AI Institute (US)
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology (US)
- Carnegie Mellon University (US)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Science Robotics
- Published
- 2026-10-14
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1126/scirobotics.aed3627
- Citations
- 1
- Primary Topic
- Control and Dynamics of Mobile Robots
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 2.74
Funders
- Hyundai Motor Group