A hopping robot for planetary exploration

This paper presents the design and some preliminary analysis of a hopping robot for planetary exploration. The goal of this project is to explore a different mobility paradigm which may present advantages over conventional wheel and leg locomotion. The approach is to achieve mobility by hopping and perform science and imaging via rolling. The device is currently equipped with a single video camera representing the science sensor suite. The hopper is equipped with a simple microprocessor and wireless modem so that it can receive sequences of commands and autonomously execute them, making it suitable for exploration of distant planets, comets and asteroids. One important feature of this hopper is that it uses a single motor for hopping in a specified direction as well as pointing the camera via rolling.