A bionic kangaroo has been created by a team of engineers in Germany. The bionic kangaroo is well capable of jumping and recovering its balance. Also, it is designed in such a way that it can easily recover energy when jumping in order to store energy for the next jump.

It has not been created with the intention of selling into the market, but to show the power of Biomimetics to aspiring engineers. This is the field of science which analyzes designs in the natural world and then creates a copy of them to benefit human beings.

The bionic kangaroo, developed by a team of German engineers at Festo, a leading worldwide supplier of automation technology, mimics the ability of real-life animals to jump and regain their balance.

Gesture control is used to operate the robot. The operator has to wear an armband and make hand movements to the kangaroo. The robot acts similar to the real marsupial.

Bluetooth is used to send signals to the robot and it jumps up to 40 centimeters in the air toward the motioned target. It took two years of research to create Festo's bionic kangaroo. The one meter tall bionic kangaroo weighs seven kilograms and is well capable of jumping to distance of 80 centimeters.

Robotic penguins, seagulls, and jellyfish are some of the early creations of Festo. The Bionic Learning Network is created by the cooperation between Festo and renowned universities, institutes, and development companies. The aim behind it is to improve industrial technology through applying aspects from nature.

A rubber spring is used by the robot kangaroo to store energy during landing, which makes it perfect to copy the natural animal's highly developed Achilles tendon. A combination of pneumatic and electrical energy makes the bionic kangaroo to jump.