Noah AwadDesign portfolio
Project 001/Mechanical design

Mechanical
Hopper.

I wanted a side-mounted leg to kick my hopper forward like a froghopper. I ended up flipping the leg underneath and giving the foot grip with a balloon. In the final run, a friction-creep timer held it for about 30 seconds before takeoff.

Read the case study Watch the jump
The final hopper standing in front of the height scale with its blue foot on the table.
Celebration run
Ready to jump

Inside the project

Field notes  /  01–03
Schematic of a folded leg and its range of motion.
01  /  Design history

The froghopper’s kick

Early wooden linkage with a row of possible mounting holes.
02  /  Build log

Building a leg that grips

Force versus extension for Anders Nelson’s straight tubing sample.
03  /  Test data

Testing the tension rope

About the designer

Noah Awad

I’m a student at Wesleyan University. This portfolio is my record of what I build, the decisions I make along the way, and what I can learn by putting a prototype on the test bench.