Attitude Control Experiments of Cubic Rover on Low‑Gravity Testbed

In-situ exploration of asteroid surfaces is of great scientific significance. Internally actuated rovers have been released to asteroid surfaces but without enough controllability. To investigate the attitude control characteristics of the cubic rover for asteroid surface exploration, a series of experiments are carried out using the self-designed rover and the low-gravity testbed. The experiments focus on two major themes: The minimum flywheel speed for cubic rover to produce a walking motion in different conditions, and the relationship between the rover's rotation angle and the flywheel speed in twisting motion. The rover's dynamical descriptions of the walking and twisting motions are first derived. The features and design of the low-gravity testbed are then summarized, including its dynamics, setup, and validation. A detailed comparison between the dynamic model and the experimental results is presented, which provides a basic reference of the cubic rover's attitude control in low-gravity environments.