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ExoMars is the first mission of the "Aurora" Exploration Programme of the European Space Agency (ESA). A core part of the mission is a Mars Rover, capable to acquire subsurface soil samples from down to 2 metres and analyze them on board. The combination of rover mobility with the capability to access underground locations where organic molecules m...
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... locomotion concept with three simple bogies has evolved from the "RCL-E" Concept described in [7] driven primarily by mass constraints and static stability. The locomotion subsystem design of the OSZ team is described in more detail in [8] , the one of MDA is shown in Figure 5. Both locomotion teams envisage the use of brushless DC motors for the drives and metallic flexible wheels (see Figure 6) for increasing the wheel-soil contact area, which helps to meet the gradeability requirements. ...
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... As for rovers, many wheeled rovers were proposed and studied, such as Sojourner rover, 14 Spirit and Opportunity rovers of the Mars Rover mission, 15 Jade Rabbit rover, 16 Shrimp and SOLERO rovers, 17,18 and ExoMars-E rover. 19 Most of the existing rovers with wheels have the limited capability to traverse tough terrains and have problems with the orientation adjustment of the body. Particularly, some conceptual robots with a wheel-legged mobile system are designed to expand their maneuvering range, enhancing their exploration capability, such as ATHLETE 20,21 and Spider-bot. ...
During extraterrestrial planet exploration programs, the existing exploratory mode has some limitations, such as the exploratory range of the rover is limited. In this article, a concept of a novel legged robot is introduced which has inbuilt the features of lander and rover, including landing and walking capabilities as well as being deployable, orientation adjusted, and terrain adaptable. Furthermore, the rover can also be launched and work together with the robot to extend the exploratory range, and the legged mobile lander plays the role of base camp. The concept and features of the proposed robot are outlined in three stages. Firstly, the motion characteristics of the novel legged robot mapping its functions are extracted, which can be divided into global and local motion characteristics. Secondly, the structures of legs are designed according to the extracted motion characteristics, mainly composed of upper and lower parts. Thirdly, numerous structures of legged mobile landers are obtained and presented by assembling the same or different structures of legs. The number of overconstraints is selected as the qualitative index to evaluate the mechanisms. Finally, the five functions of the novel robot mentioned above are verified through taking a typical example by simulation in a software.
... The various Mars landers include Viking 1 [9 , 10] and Phoenix [11] . For rovers, many wheeled rovers were also invented, such as Sojourner [12] , Spirit and Opportunity of the Mars Rover mission [13] , Jade Rabbit [14] , Shrimp and SOLERO [15 , 16] , ExoMars-E [17] , ATHLETE [18 , 19] , and Spider-bot [20] . ...
During extraterrestrial planet exploration programs, autonomous robots are deployed using separate landers. In this paper, a concept of a novel legged robot is introduced which has inbuilt the features of lander and rover, including landing and walking capabilities as well as being deployable, orientation adjusted and terrain adaptable. Firstly, motion characteristics of the novel legged robot mapping its functions are extracted, which can be divided into global and local motion characteristics. Secondly, structures of legs are designed according to the extracted motion characteristics, mainly composed of upper and lower parts. Finally, numerous structures of legged mobile landers are obtained and presented by assembling the same or different structures of legs.
... The twin rovers that followed, Spirit and Opportunity, have endured many years of activity on Mars and have made many significant discoveries (JPL, b). Several other new missions are in progress to explore Mars (Volpe, 2005; Van et al., 2008) and the Moon (Neal, 2009) using planetary rovers that are expected to traverse more challenging terrain with scientific objectives such as searching for evidence of life and investigating the origin of the solar system. The present planet exploration rovers are advanced WMRs that show excellent performance and have integrated the cutting-edge technologies of many fields, and overcoming new frontier issues that are specific to planetary rovers has promoted the development of terrestrial WMRs. ...
... Exploring planets such as the Mars and the moon with autonomous wheeled robots (rovers) has already been proved to be an effective method by the successful rovers, including the well-known " Sprit " and " Opportunity " of the US and " Lunakhod " of the former USSR [1] [2]. At present, several new rover-based planetary exploration missions are in progress, which require the rovers to travel a much longer distance over more challenging terrain than did earlier missions [3] [4] [5]. In order to fulfill complex scientific exploration tasks in rough deformable terrain covered with fine-grained regolith, scientists have been researching and endeavoring to develop high-performance rovers. ...
... Exploring planets such as the Mars and the moon with autonomous wheeled robots (rovers) has already been proved to be an effective method by the successful rovers, including the well-known " Sprit " and " Opportunity " of the US and " Lunakhod " of the former USSR [1,2]. At present, several new rover-based planetary exploration missions are in progress, which require the rovers to travel a much longer distance over more challenging terrain than did earlier missions345 . In order to fulfill complex scientific exploration tasks in rough deformable terrain covered with fine-grained regolith, scientists have been researching and endeavoring to develop high-performance rovers. ...
Planetary rovers are different from conventional terrestrial vehicles in many respects, making it necessary to investigate the terramechanics with a particular focus on them, which is a hot research topic at the budding stage. Predicting the wheel–soil interaction performance from the knowledge of terramechanics is of great importance to the mechanical design/evaluation/optimization, dynamics simulation, soil parameter identification, and control of planetary rovers. In this study, experiments were performed using a single-wheel testbed for wheels with different radii (135 and 157.35 mm), widths (110 and 165 mm), lug heights (0, 5, 10, and 15 mm), numbers of lugs (30, 24, 15, and 8), and lug inclination angles (0°, 5°, 10°, and 20°) under different slip ratios (0, 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.4, 0.6, etc.). The influences of the vertical load (30 N, 80 N, and 150 N), moving velocity (10, 25, 40, and 55 mm/s), and repetitive passing (four times) were also studied. Experimental results shown with figures and tables and are analyzed to evaluate the wheels’ driving performance in deformable soil and to draw conclusions. The driving performance of wheels is analyzed using absolute performance indices such as drawbar pull, driving torque, and wheel sinkage and also using relative indices such as the drawbar pull coefficient, tractive efficiency, and entrance angle. The experimental results and conclusions are useful for optimal wheel design and improvement/verification of wheel–soil interaction mechanics model. The analysis methods used in this paper, such as those considering the relationships among the relative indices, can be referred to for analyzing the performance of wheels of other vehicles.
... The twin rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, have been exploring Mars for more than six years and have made many significant discoveries [2,3]. Many new missions involving planetary rovers are underway for the exploration of Mars [4,5] and the moon [6]. These rovers are required to traverse challenging rough and deformable terrains to achieve their scientific goals such as looking for evidence of life and investigating the origin of solar system. ...
With the increasing challenges facing planetary exploration missions and the resultant increase in the performance requirements for planetary rovers, terramechanics (wheel---soil interaction mechanics) is playing an important role in the development of these rovers. As an extension of the conventional terramechanics theory for terrestrial vehicles, the terramechanics theory for planetary rovers, which is becoming a new research hotspot, is unique and puts forward many new challenging problems. This paper first discusses the significance of the study of wheel---soil interaction mechanics of planetary rovers and summarizes the differences between planetary rovers and terrestrial vehicles and the problems arising thereof. The application of terramechanics to the development of planetary rovers can be divided into two phases (the R&D phase and exploration phase for rovers) corresponding to the high-fidelity and simplified terramechanics models. This paper also describes the current research status by providing an introduction to classical terramechanics and the experimental, theoretical, and numerical researches on terramechanics for planetary rovers. The application status of the terramechanics for planetary rovers is analyzed from the aspects of rover design, performance evaluation, planetary soil parameter identification, dynamics simulation, mobility control, and path planning. Finally, the key issues for future research are discussed. The current planetary rovers are actually advanced wheeled mobile robots (WMRs), developed employing cutting-edge technologies from different fields. The terramechanics for planetary rovers is expected to present new challenges and applications for WMRs, making it possible to develop WMRs using the concepts of mechanics and dynamics.
To meet the needs of the “Returning” and “Base construction” missions of the extraterrestrial body's exploration task, it is necessary to enable the legged stationary lander (LSL) to walk, i.e., it is important and imperative to design novel legged mobile landers (LMLs). This paper aims to address a novel synthesis method based on Truss-Mechanism Transformation (called as TMT method) for LMLs with the capabilities of trusses and mechanisms during different phases. The overall topological design concept and procedure of TMT method are proposed. Based on the extract rules and intersection operations of the motions, the motion requirements for TMT method are obtained. The number condition, the relationship among motions and the methods for allocating the motions in the truss for TMT method are proposed. Some qualitative evaluations are also proposed. By means of this method, numerous structures of LMLs based on the structure of Chang'e lander are synthesized. Finally, after type evaluation, two typical LMLs’ legs with transmission limbs or electronic bolts are taken as examples to analyze the properties and abilities of LMLs during different phases. The TMT method is universal and effective for topological design of robots which can transform between truss and mechanism.
During extraterrestrial planetary exploration programs, autonomous robots are deployed using a separate immovable lander and a rover. This mode has some limitations. In this paper, a concept of a novel legged robot with one passive limb and singularity property is introduced that has inbuilt features of a lander and a rover. Currently, studies have focused primarily on a performance analysis of the lander without a walking function. However, a systematic type synthesis of the legged mobile lander has not been studied. In this study, a new approach to the type synthesis used for the robot is proposed based on the Lie group theory. The overall concept and design procedures are proposed and described. The motion requirements of the robot and its legs, which are corresponding to the multi-function, are extracted and described. The layouts of the subgroups or submanifolds of the limbs are determined. The structures of the passive and actuated limbs are synthesized. Numerous structures of the legs with a passive limb are produced and listed corresponding to the desired displacement manifolds. Numerous novel structures of legs for the legged mobile lander are presented and listed. Then, four qualitative criteria or indexes are introduced. Based on the proposed criteria, a leg's configuration is selected as the best. A typical structure of the legged mobile lander is obtained by assembling the structures of the proposed legs. Finally, the typical robot is used as an example to verify the capabilities of the novel robot using a software simulation (ADAMS).
