Ground mobility systems for planetary exploration (original) (raw)

A Review on Travelling Performance of Planetary Rovers

In designing a planetary rover, it is necessary to evaluate the effect of model size parameters such as weight, diameter/width and grousers of a wheel on its travelling performance. This paper presents an overview of these size parameters and their effect on the travelling performance, concluded from the works of various researchers. This travelling performance depends on the wheel mechanism/track mechanism with no effect from change in rover weight, for tracked mechanism. However, for the wheeled mechanism the travelling performance decreases as the rover weight increases. The wheel diameter rather than wheel width, improves travelling performance. The provision of lugs improves travelling performance. The paper describes the system parameters required and how they are evaluated. The salient observations and inferences on the research carried out by various researchers pertaining to the travelling performance of planetary rovers are also outlined.

Taxonomy, Systems Review and Performance Metrics of Planetary Exploration Rovers

13th International Conference on Control, Automation, Robotics and Vision (ICARCV 2014), 2014

— A taxonomy of planetary exploration rovers is presented, followed by a review of systems used in missions and in an experimental phase. The baseline design emerges as four or six wheels, rocker-bogie based passive suspension and all wheel driving / selected wheel steering. A trend is also apparent in the use of wheel-legged hybrid locomotion. The performance metrics are presented by which the differing configurations of the locomotion subsystem for wheeled rovers with a passive suspension may be systematically evaluated. The taxonomy and aggregated metrics presented in this paper aid in the comparison and selection of rover characteristics, while the baseline design is a representative example of current practices and future trends.

A conceptual walking vehicle for planetary exploration

Mechatronics, 1997

A lightweight, small size walking robot currently being developed at the Université Libre de Bruxelles as a conceptual vehicle for planetary exploration is described. The robot consists of three articulated bodies connected by universal joints. Each body has two legs with two degrees of freedom each. Each universal joint is provided with two actuators and torque sensors; a compliant behaviour is achieved by force feedback. This particular device improves considerably the agility of the walking vehicle by allowing the central body to follow the ground profile. Furthermore, the vehicle can walk on both sides and can recover from roll-over thanks to the actuated universal joints which allow an autonomous transfer from back to belly.

Design of a High Mobile Micro Rover within a Dual Rover Configuration for Autonomous Operations

2014

The importance for small and lightweight rovers providing high mobility and versatility in future exploration missions is increasing. Within this paper the terrestrial test platform Coyote II is presented. The rover is equipped with a novel locomotion concept combining hybrid legged-wheels with spherical helical wheels. This allows to perform side-to-side steering movements and yields high mobility performance in rough terrain as well as on soft soils as shown during various laboratory and real environment tests. The rover is specially designed to act as a scout rover paired up with a primary rover for autonomous long term exploration. The operational concept for the scout rover within the two rover team is addressed with respect to the primary rover.

Design and construction of a mobile type rover robotics platform

2011

This text documents the design and construction of a robotic platform type exploration rover to move over an unstructured environment. It is tele-operated and has the ability to cross vertical obstacles up to 10 cm in height, with an inclination of not more than 15° from the horizontal. It also has the capability of transporting a maximum of 2 kg payload, even in adverse weather conditions such as dust and moisture presence.