Abstract
This report presents the novel tiny hopping mechanism under low gravity utilizing the attraction force of permanent magnets. The mechanism is aimed at application to a tiny rover for asteroid exploration. The main part of the mechanism consists of one movable magnet and two stationary magnets. The mechanism uses for hopping the impulse force generated when the movable magnet sticks to the stationary magnet. The features of the mechanism are that the large impact force can be generated in spite of low-power consumption, and that it can be easily miniaturized and modularized. The prototype module weighs only 10g with dimension 21.5 mm in width, 28 mm in height, and 8.5 mm in depth, except for the drive circuit and power source. Preliminary experiment under 1G environment shows the availability of the proposed mechanism.
