PicoBots – A Small-Sized Exploration Rover Standard for Universities

Abstract

This poster will introduce a pico-class robotic platform primarily intended for future lunar exploration. Inspired by the Cubesat standard, an affordable and easy to fabricate design will be introduced allowing universities to develop and perform own rover-based missions. As all major space agencies have set the goal to go to Earths natural satellite in the near future, several opportunities will arise to piggyback to the moon. With a maximum weight of 1 kg, one or multiple PicoBots, plus an eventually needed base station, could easily fill mass budget margins. By utilizing the alternating tripod gait, adapted from simple insects like the cockroach, locomotion can be realized with only two actuators. In comparison to most exploration rovers, the chosen propulsion system leads to a lower number in ‘degrees of freedom’ and therefore a much higher demand for a simple environment. Main advantage, on the other hand, is that it minimizes the complexity of the control-algorithm and reduces the mass as well as the cost. Thanks to the progress in the field of MEMS-based technologies, subsystem components and instruments are available in small sizes, are lightweight and with low power requirements. PicoBots could either be specifically designed for a single mechanical task, e.g. sampling and analysis of rocks, or numerous sensoric payloads, like the seismo- or gravimeter. Swarm intelligence and behavior could also be an interesting field of research.