Journal of Shanghai Jiao Tong University ›› 2025, Vol. 59 ›› Issue (8): 1169-1180.doi: 10.16183/j.cnki.jsjtu.2023.646

• Mechanical Engineering • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Design and Motion Modeling of a Small-Scale Lunar Jumping Robot

YAN He1, ZHU Xingyue1, HOU Zhangli1, WANG Weijun2, ZHANG Zhinan1()   

  1. 1. School of Mechanical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China
    2. Shanghai Institute of Aerospace System Engineering, Shanghai 201109, China
  • Received:2023-12-26 Revised:2024-02-17 Accepted:2024-03-07 Online:2025-08-28 Published:2025-08-26
  • Contact: ZHANG Zhinan E-mail:zhinanz@sjtu.edu.cn

Abstract:

Jumping is a viable form of locomotion for lunar surface exploration. However, due to the limited research on the coupling between jumping robots and the lunar surface, applying jumping robots for lunar surface detection remains challenging. Aiming at the load index of 5 kPa for the lunar surface detector, a new energy storage leg configuration of a jumping robot was proposed to realize low load jump with variable initial velocity and direction during take-off. The parameters of energy storage element were optimized to realize near-constant force take-off of the robot, which was validated in a dynamic simulation environment. To enable accurate jumps on the surface of the moon, a lunar soil mechanical property model considering damping characteristics was proposed, a discrete element simulation environment was built to determine the mechanical parameters, with a jumping dynamics model of the lunar surface robot established to verify the model accuracy through discrete element dynamics coupling simulation. Based on this dynamic model, two motion planning algorithms are implemented, confirming the application of the model.

Key words: lunar surface detection, jumping robot, mechanical properties of lunar soil, dynamic model, discrete element simulation

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