| Lunar rover is the vehicle that can carry special load and complete specific science exploration tasks. Being the tool of the lunar surface exploration, lunar vehicle will carry all sorts of science instruments to explore the lunar surface. So the capability of the lunar rover is very important to fulfill the lunar surface detective task. Lunar rover is the indispensable medium of the lunar detection in the underway, the pioneer of the astronaut.With the development of society and advancement of technology, energy and sustainable development has become an issue of common concern throughout the world. Because the moon contains abundant resources, it is an ideal base for astronomical observations even from the military and political perspective, there is also a huge potential interest. So the lunar exploration becomes the focus for various countries.Countries in the world have spent many years to develop the lunar rover/planet exploration robot system. Especially the United States has a sophisticated experience in this field. The development of the lunar rover can be divided into some stages: the first stage, before 1959, the human being uses the naked eye or a telescope to observe the moon; During the second stage, from 1959 to 1976, the USA and Russia began a competition in space science and technology which focused on lunar exploration and research. Where Russia launched the Luna series and Zond series detectors, the United States launched the Ranger series, Surveyor Series, and the Apollo series detectors. During the third stage, from 1976 to 1994, the development of the lunar rover/planet exploration robot system was in the trough. During the fourth stage, from 1994 till present, The United States puts forward a plan to return to the moon and Clementine spacecraft launched in 1994, opened the prelude for a new round of lunar exploration.In the current study in different countries, both the lunar rovers and the other planet exploration detectors are mainly equipped with wheel drive systems, of which the majority has a six-wheeled-driving steering system. The drive steering system, in accordance with steering the modes of the wheels, can be subdivided into differential steering and independent steering.At present, the planet exploration detectors have been used in practice. Including the differential steering rover, which has been launched by Russia, and the independent planet exploration detectors, which belongs to the USA.In the field of vehicle dynamics, the available researches analyses on front wheel, rear wheel, and more wheel steering. However, the main researches are about the stability of the manipulation between the air-filled tyre and the road of rigid. In contrast to this, most parts of the lunar surface is covered with the soil layer consisting dust and broken small rocks. The majority of the lunar soil is relatively soft soil, which density is smaller than the sandy soil on Earth. What we can see from it, is that on the moon the Rover wheels are mainly in contact with soft soil, which can cause the wheel to sink and slide. This gives more difficulties to the steering system analysis and the design.The special environment on the moon puts forward higher requirements to the steering system, and more stringent restrictions to the energy consumption of the driving system. This makes the research about choosing which kind of Lunar Rover can adapt best to the landscape on the moon, become very meaningful.Lunar rover should have good terrain adaptability, when implemented during the missions. The performance of the lunar rovers while moving depends largely on the action of forces on the rover's wheels. As we can see, it is necessary to do an in-depth research to the steering system Dynamic Modeling and the energy consumption analysis of the lunar rover. Against this background, the paper conducts a study to the following areas:In order to compare and analyze energy consumption of the two kinds of lunar rovers, when running on the soft road, this paper focuses on the next issues; The steering system dynamics model set, the analysis of the lateral velocity of differential rate, the wheel angle of independent, tracks of each wheel, and sets up an energy consumption model of the two kinds of lunar rovers. Besides, we get the curves of energy consumption and three-dimensional maps of energy in given specific conditions by simulation in MATLAB.In theory it needs test on soil when do Research on mechanical properties of the lunar rovers and the wheels of the lunar rovers, which is impossible at this stage. Simulation technology has become an indispensable tool for analysis, as well as research and design of mechanical system. Those factors play an important role in reducing the costs of the system, which shortens the testing cycle of the product. Based on this idea, the paper uses the IMPAC function in ADAMS to simulate the environment on the moon. We have to adapt the impact of wheels in the real environment to the equivalent amount, which is exerted on the dummy reality model, to achieve the same effect. A detailed flow for setting up a simulation platform is given in this paper. Besides, based on ADAMS, the dummy reality model is found, including a virtual environment model, a driving system model and lunar the rovers machine configuration model. By calculating, the two kinds of lunar rovers run in the same simulation conditions. After simulating and analyzing the data, we get the simulation curve of the parameters. In order to obtain the resistances, torques caused by the resistance and the total energy consumptions of lunar rovers have to be determined by using the post-processing Module of ADAMS. In order to verify the correctness of Dynamics models,and to compare and analyze energy consumption of the lunar rovers, simulation tests will be used.At last, the paper presents the progress and a conclusion on the steering system dynamics model and the energy consumption analysis of the lunar rover simulation platform. Finally, the further study direction on improvement, and its future development, will be pointed out. |
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