Small Solar System bodies, such as asteroids, comets, and irregular moons, are the next frontier for space exploration. However, their irregular shapes and extremely weak gravity pose many challenges for traditional robotic rovers. This demo will showcase our ongoing effort to develop a small, internally-actuated hopping rover called “Hedgehog,” capable of controlled surface mobility on these small bodies. By simply spinning internal flywheels, this small little cube can almost magically hop and tumble around.

http://asl.stanford.edu/projects/surface-mobility-on-small-bodies/