Small body exploration robot with hopping mechanism

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.