A minimally actuated hopping rover for exploration of celestial bodies

This paper describes a minimalist hopping robot that can perform basic exploration tasks on Mars or other moderate gravity bodies. We show that a single actuator can control the vehicle´s jumping and steering operations, as well as the panning of an on-board camera. Our novel thrusting linkage also leads to good system efficiency. The inherent minimalism of our hopping paradigm offers interesting advantages over wheeled and legged mobility concepts for some types of planetary exploration. The paper summarizes the evolutionary development of the system, issues relevant to the design of such jumping systems, and experimental results obtained with system prototypes