Mechanical Test And Analysis Of Wheel-soil Interaction Of Lunar Rover

Surface mobility by using wheeled mobile robots (Rovers) is one of the important technologies for lunar/planetary exploration missions. These planetary exploration rovers are expected to travel long distances and perform complex tasks in order to fulfill challenging mission goals. Surface terrain of the Moon is covered with fine-grained soil called regolith, or boulders, rocks, or stones spread over the terrain. Because of the challenging terrain, the rover should be aware of mobility hazards, such as wheel slip/stuck, vehicle tip-over, and collision with obstacles. In particular, the wheel will easily slip on loose soil, and then, wheels might get stuck. Subsequently, Research on the mechanical character of wheel-soil interaction and actuating the character of wheel has important significance for developing wheel. It is also important for the dynamic analysis, parameter distinguishing, simulation, road planning, and relative technology of the whole lunar rover. This dissertation researches the designing the data acquisition and control system of the experimental facility. Use theory and experiment of the lunar rover on the homologous soil. Evaluation way by actuating character of the wheel is a part in it.Based on the theory of terrain mechanics and studying method, the model of the driving electromotor is build up and designed the data acquisition and control system of the experimental facility which is constituted by the hardware and software. The electromotor and sensor could be drived and acquired by the system. the mathematical models between wheel and terrain are built up by analyzing the relation of construction, soil parameters, interacting load, slip ratio, traction of the wheel, furthermore validated the model through the wheel-soil interactions experiment.Finally, the research on traction performance evaluation methods is made to base on the theoretical research, simulation and experiments of wheel. The slope traversability analysis for slope climbing limit is described. The improvement of the trafficability limit is also suggested.