Gearfuse

The pogo stick. One of the most frustrating toys of my childhood for sure. On the other hand, once you started jumping and got the hang of it, it provided endless fun during the summer. Check out the Flybar, a modern update on the pogo stick. Using super-strong elastic bands and an adjustable piston, you can get some serious height on this stick. We’re talking over 7 feet high, ensuring that you can hop over cars, humans and dog shit alike. Flybar doesn’t come cheap though. Look to shell out $210 in the US and $320 in the UK.

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Dong Han Kim and his team at the Seoul National University of Technology in South Korea have designed a robot that can jump up stairs using two empty plastic soda bottles. In spite of all the amazing crap robots can do, they often have trouble navigating steps. Kim’s ScoutRobot solves this problem with an aluminum cylinder that blasts compressed air from two 20 oz. plastic soda bottles. There have been lots of awesome things made out of empty bottles, but this air-powered robot is definitely the best of the bunch. ScoutRobot also has sensors that spot upcoming obstacles and estimate how much height is needed to jump them. Sadly for me and all of my fellow honkies, modern science still hasn’t come up with a solution to get us hops. Read on for a video of the bottle-bot getting airborne.

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