Small Body Exploration Robot with Hopping Mechanism

T. Kubota, S. Shimoda, T. Yoshimitsu, and I. Nakatani (Japan)

Keywords

Hopping Robot, Micro-gravity, Landing, Spring and Linear Actuator.

Abstract

For future exploration missions to small planetary bodies, in-situ surface observation by robots would be a promising method to investigate the target body whose surface gravity is very weak. The authors have studied mobility system under the micro gravity environment and developed a mobility mechanism which drives a robot by hopping. This paper proposes a new mobility system to have hopping and landing functions under micro-gravity environment. The validity and effectiveness of the proposed mechanism is confirmed by some computer simulations and experiments.

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