Obstacle-climbing capability analysis of six-wheeled rocker-bogie lunar rover on loose soil

Abstract

Taking six-wheeled rocker-bogie lunar rover as an object, on the basis of force analysis between the wheels and lunar soil, its obstacle-climbing force model on loose soil was established in this paper, and the wheel sinkages were obtained. Based on the method of solving the wheel's driving torque solution space feasible regions, this paper analyzed the forward obstacle-climbing capability of six-wheeled rocker-bogie lunar rover on loose soil, including single-wheel obstacle-climbing and two wheels obstacle-climbing simultaneously. Simulations show that under the loose soil environment, the wheels have different obstacle-climbing capability, i.e. the rear wheel is the best, the middle one is the worst and the front one is moderate. © 2009 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.