Design of a reconfigurable robot MACROTIS for exploration on small asteroids

摘要

A new design of robot for space exploration has been proposed in this paper. By referencing to a modular robot and using snap-through-buckling mechanisms, a cube-shaped inertia-driven robot has been developed, which can achieve translational and rotationalmotion to multiple directions. Characteristic of the mechanism was observed, and performance of the robot under pseudo microgravityenvironment was tested.