Proposal of New Mobility and Landing Experiment in Microgravity Environment

This paper proposes a new mobility system for exploration under microgravity by using springs and linear actuators. In a microgravity, it is difficult to obtain horizontal velocity because the friction force between the robot and the ground is very small. By pushing off the ground, however, the robot can not only hop, but also obtain horizontal velocity. The proposed hopping robot consists of three masses and can push off the ground using springs. The robot can hop from the stationary state by transforming the elastic energy to kinetic energy using the springs and linear actuators. The robot can land without bouncing by transforming kinetic energy back to elastic energy. Free fall experiments demonstrate the landing performance of the proposed system.