A Minimally Actuated Hopping Rover for Exploration of Celestial Bodies
نویسندگان
چکیده
This paper describes a minimalist hopping robot that can perform basic exploration tasks on Mars or other moderate gravity bodies. We show that a single actuator can control the vehicle’s jumping and steering operations, as well as the panning of an on-board camera. Our novel thrusting linkage also leads to good system efficiency. The inherent minimalism of our hopping paradigm offers interesting advantages over wheeled and legged mobility concepts for some types of planetary exploration. The paper summarizes the evolutionary development of the system, issues relevant to the design of such jumping systems, and experimental results obtained with system prototypes.
منابع مشابه
Minimalist Jumping Robots for Celestial Exploration
In this paper we describe a novel approach to the design and deployment of small and minimally actuated jumping or hopping robots that are suitable for exploring the unstructured terrains of celestial bodies. We introduce the basic jumping mobility paradigm, as well as the evolution of our hopping robot concept by way of the main prototypes that we have developed. These prototypes show that a s...
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