Planetary Rover Optimization Tool (ROT)

A planetary rover optimization tool has been developed at DLR since 2009, where a lot of modeling, simulation and optimization effort were injected into this initiative to computer aided rover design. This paper shows the main characteristics of this tool concerning optimization of an ExoMars-type suspension rover in multiple scenarios using evolutionary algorithms, distributed computation, and enhanced wheel-terrain contact models embedded in a multibody simulation model. The tool was already extensively tested and employs meaningful objective functions specially designed to capture the dynamic performance of wheeled rovers in extreme environments.