Abstract
Lunar rovers are required to traverse rough terrains such as those found in craters and cliffs, which are scientifically important location for exploration.
Wheel-type rovers are popular for planetary missions. Recently, some space agencies have been focusing their attention on flexible wheels for exploration rovers. Flexible wheels can change their form according to ground conditions. Therefore, the flexible wheel shows high performance for traversing loose terrain such as that on the lunar surface. However, the performance of the flexible wheel, which is important for us use in a lunar rover, has not yet been understood in detail. The performance evaluation of the flexible wheel is important to use it for the lunar rovers. Therefore, this study aims to carry out a performance evaluation of the flexible wheel. Running experiments are conducted to confirm the running performance using an experimental device to evaluate a single wheel.
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Iizuka, K., Kubota, T. Running Performance of Flexible Wheel for Lunar Rovers on Loose Soil. Int J of Soc Robotics 4 (Suppl 1), 39–47 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12369-011-0104-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12369-011-0104-0