Exploring Enceladus with a Hopping Robot [NIAC 2025]
Moving across the surface of Enceladus can be more tricky than you think. Rough icy terrain can be hard for wheels. No atmosphere makes helicopters impossible. Thus, hopping and jumping might be the answer!
🟣 Guest: Dr. Justin Yim https://publish.illinois.edu/novelmobilerobotslab/
Watch the video here (with no ads) or on YouTube: https://youtu.be/fXQ0tWw0zjE
Comments (5)
During the discussion of other mobile shapes, I got an image of an inchworm in my mind's eye. A robot made of a series of flexible segments, that could lift and extend the front end and plant it on the ground, then bring up the back end, and repeat. Has anything like that been explored and written up in the literature?
Very interesting, thank you for sharing with us.
Another exploration possibility not mentioned: hopping down into and up out of lava tube ceiling collapses on the moon or Mars.
Great project! Go Dr Lim!
Dr. Yin is right to point out that larger sizes are proportionally more fragile. For example, when Palaeontologists looked at the locomotion of Brontosaurs they reckoned their leg bones would break if they exceeded walking speed!