Influence evaluation of wheel surface profile on traversability of planetary rovers

Abstract

Planetary rovers play a significant role in surface explorations on the Moon and/or Mars. However, because of wheel slippage, the wheels of planetary rovers can get stuck in loose soil, and the exploration mission may fail because of this situation. To avoid slippage and increase the wheels' drawbar pull, the wheels of planetary rovers typically have parallel fins called lugs on their surface. In this study, we conducted experiments using two-wheeled testbeds in a sandbox to provide a quantitative confirmation of the influence of lugs on the traversability of planetary rovers. In this paper, we report the results of the experiments, and discuss the influence of lugs on the traversability of planetary rovers.