A spherical hopping robot for exploration in complex environments

Spherical robot can move efficiently on flat ground and the hopping robot can leap the obstacles over several times of its own size. In this paper, a spherical hopping robot which combines the spherical robot and hopping robot is proposed. It can roll freely in the plane, if there are barriers it can jump at the desired angle and in the desired direction after self-adjusting. Also it can jump repeatedly and stabilize itself. The design scheme for spherical hopping robot is presented. The way to achieve the function of rolling and hopping is carefully investigated by analysis of the mechanism. Details of the hopping drive mechanism are also given. Mathematical model is established for implementing both rolling and hopping process. The simulation results validate the design scheme.