Modellbasierte Entwicklung eines mobilen Scouts für extreme Gelände in der planetaren Exploration
2017
Robotic exploration of planetary bodies has historically been dominated by wheeled
rovers. These rovers are successful, but due to the danger of getting stuck they have to
be operated very carefully. In this work an alternative robotic locomotion concept is
examined that has been proven to be successful in traversing rough terrain on earth: the
rimless wheel, also known as “whegs”. This approach to robotic locomotion represents
a compromise between wheels and legs by using discrete footholds to push the robot
forward but still performing full wheel revolutions. The former eliminates the need for a
continuous track that conventional wheels have and the latter considerably simplifies the
mechanism and its control. These aspects as well as its inherent redundancy (multiple
spokes per wheel and multiple wheels per robot) make the rimless wheel particularly
suited for planetary exploration.
Analytical examinations of the kinematics of rimless wheels and different mechanical
models of compliant spokes are conducted. Multi-body simulations are then used to
verify the conclusions drawn from analytical considerations about running on a plane,
step climbing and movement on general unstructured terrain. Suitable parameters of a
wheel for a future scout rover are derived by means of a parameter variation.
A single rimless wheel is designed and tested to verify the calculations and simulations.
The experiments are conducted on a novel testbed at DLR-SR, the “Terramechanics
Robotics Locomotion Laboratory”, and support the assertion that the developed
compliant locomotion system has the potential to facilitate movement on rough terrain
as well as to increase the efficiency of locomotion on hard and flat surfaces.
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