Future of Robotics: Three-Legged Spacehopper Robot for Asteroid Exploration

[서울신문 나우뉴스]Early walking robots usually had four legs. This is because it is not easy to walk on two legs without falling like a human being. However, with recent developments in robotics technology, robots that walk on two legs like humans are becoming a reality. Looking at humanoid robots that skillfully walk on two legs, the future in which robots will replace human labor does not seem so far away anymore.

In any case, for a robot to walk smoothly or move quickly, it seems a reasonable choice to have a fair number of legs, such as two or four, like an animal. But some scientists believe that is not necessary. Three bridges can also be a reasonable choice depending on the situation. A research team at ETH Zurich in Switzerland also considered a three-legged robot.

SpaceHopper, a three-legged robot that started as a student project two and a half years ago, has three long, thin legs like an insect. The body here is also triangular. The reason for this strange appearance is that it was designed to move in a celestial body with very low gravity, such as an asteroid If it has three legs, it is stable when standing like a tripod, but it likely to fall as quickly as it takes one step away. However, on the surface of an asteroid, where there is almost no gravity, there is no need to worry about falling over. Of course, the biggest problem is that gravity is so low that you can’t walk properly no matter how many legs you have. In the case of low-mass asteroids, there is a risk that if the robot presses the ground with its feet, it will bounce straight into space and become a child lost in space.

The purpose of the Spacehopper is not to walk, but to bounce as the name suggests. Press down on the ground, jump a little, and when you come back on the ground, use your three legs to balance like a tripod. It may not land at the same time and may bounce several times. Taking this into account, the legs are made to be strong against blows even though they are thin. Since the top and the bottom are the same and the shape is the same in all three directions at 360 degrees, there is no problem in the execution of the mission regardless of which side you land on the job blade. And to test it in a near-zero gravity environment, we partnered with the European Space Agency and France’s Nobspace to fly the robot aboard the Air Zero G zero-gravity plane. Air Zero is G is a modified Airbus A310 plane that repeatedly drops from high altitudes for about 30 seconds to provide a zero-gravity / microgravity environment for astronauts and laboratories on board.

Science Columnist Gordon Jeong [email protected]

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