Leaping in Lowgravity - Modeling MASCOT’s hopping Locomotion on Asteroid Ryugu

Abstract

DLR’s lander MASCOT is an innovative system to explore and traverse asteroid surfaces. Launched piggyback on JAXA’s Hayabusa II spacecraft in December 2014, MASCOT is already on its four years cruise phase to the asteroid Ryugu-1999JU3. Even though MASCOT features a 1-DOF mobility actuator only, it has to deal with the complex interaction of the cuboid lander with the terrain. Thus, a certain orientation of MASCOT cannot be achieved directly. Hence, the mobility unit developed by DLR’s Robotics and Mechatronics Center enables MASCOT to up-right to the measurement position and to relocate by hopping motion. In this article, the optimization-based technique used to identify suitable and robust trajectories of the mobility unit is explained and exemplified for hopping and up-righting.