HOPPING ROBOT FOR PLANETARY EXPLORATION

Abstract

The Canadian Space Agency is investigating technologies for lowering the cost of planetary exploration missions through miniaturization of landed platforms. One of the consequences of miniaturization is that traditional locomotion schemes such as wheels are not appropriate any more. To a small rover, even the very small obstacles become insurmountable. Alternate locomotion schemes must then be investigated to overcome this problem and enable miniaturized missions. Another consequence of miniaturization is that electric energy obtained through solar panels becomes very scarce. In light of these constraints, a hopping robot for Mars exploration is being designed and prototyped. A mockup of the robot was built in 2004 to demonstrate the feasibility of conducting useful science in such a small package. The peculiarity of the CSA design is that it uses diurnal temperature variations to accumulate the mechanical energy necessary for hopping. The hopping mechanism is based on a novel cylindrical scissor mechanism. This paper presents the results of trade study on miniaturisation of Mars landers, introduces the main requirements to be met by such a system and describes the concept of operation of the hopping robot addressing some of the key issues with planetary landed missions of this size.