Cubic rovers that traverse by hopping systems are promising in low-gravity environments. Although several analyses of the control methods and mobility of the cubic rover are available, investigations of its attitude-adjusting behavior are still limited. This study derives the dynamic equations of the two attitude-adjusting modes of the cubic rover, referred to as walking and twisting. The relationships between the speed threshold and rotation angle of the cubic rover were investigated in both rigid and regolith environments using a self-designed low-gravity testbed. Comparative studies were conducted by considering the experimental and simulated outputs. The results of this study can be interesting for roving mission planning when exploring planetary moons and small celestial bodies.
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The set of the orbital angular-momentum reversal, or
Periodic orbits in irregular gravitational fields are significant for an understanding of dynamical behaviors around asteroids as well as the engineering aspect for deep space explorations. The rotating mass dipole, referred to as the Chermnykh problem, is a good alternative model to study qualitative dynamical environments near elongated asteroids, like the asteroid 1620 Geographos, 216 Kleopatra, or 25143 Itokawa. In this paper a global searching method is adopted to search for periodic orbits around the dipole model based on the concept of Poincaré section of surface. Representative families of periodic orbits are illustrated with respect to all three topological cases of the dipole model. Topological transitions of orbits during iso-energetic continuations are also presented as well as identification of new types of periodic orbits.