Discussion of Relationship between Expansion Trajectory of Jumping Mechanism and Mobility Performance

Abstract

Small rovers are suitable for carpooling or precursor missions and have been expected to explore complex areas where large rovers are hard to traverse. However, the moving performance of small rovers is lower than that of large rovers in general. This study designs a novel jumping mechanism that mimics a grasshopper leg for small rovers. We produced nine different leg expansion trajectories by changing the joint positions of the mechanism and investigated how these trajectories affected jumping performance. The highest jumping was obtained with a straight expansion trajectory and a kicking behind the foot, and kicking in front of the foot with a upward convex expansion trajectory generated the longest jump distance.