Evaluation of the mobility performance with numerical analysis and experimental validation for a lunar exploration rover

To fulfill success of the space mission, the traversability of lunar/planetary exploration rover should be evaluated and fully understood with respect to the terrain properties. Meanwhile, wheel-soil interaction is extremely complicated, and thus numerical analysis is compared to experimental approach of mobility performance such as sinkage, drawbar pull. Also, the model of mobility performance is ultimately depends on experimentally determined terrain parameters. This paper describes two experimental methods used to identify the accurate terrain parameters in a lunar simulant. In addition, for the evaluation of mobility performance according to slip ratio and width of wheel in a lunar simulant, the wheel test bed of planetary exploration rover was assembled. Using the test bed, the preliminary experiments of the sinkage and drawbar pull according to variation of slip ratio and wheel width were carried out and evaluated. In addition, these experimental results were compared to the numerical analysis based on the wheel-terrain interaction model on lunar simulant.