Julien Despois

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About

Julien Despois is a robotics researcher whose work bridges the frontiers of space exploration and terrestrial locomotion, with a particular focus on tensegrity structures. His most-cited paper, "Hopping and rolling locomotion with spherical tensegrity robots" (2016, 66 citations), introduces a novel 10 kg spherical probe capable of delivering a 1 kg payload across 1 km on the Moon. By combining cable-driven rolling for precise positioning with thruster-based hopping for rapid traversal, Despois demonstrated a hybrid locomotion system that overcomes the limitations of traditional rovers in low-gravity, uneven terrain. This work has been influential in the design of lightweight, impact-resistant planetary explorers. Beyond this flagship contribution, Despois’s research explores how tensegrity robots—built from rigid rods and flexible cables—can achieve both structural resilience and versatile mobility. His achievements include advancing the practical deployment of these robots for extreme environments, offering a compelling alternative to wheeled or legged systems. For students and researchers, Despois’s work exemplifies how bio-inspired and minimalist design principles can solve complex challenges in space robotics and beyond.