Experimental study on an automatic drilling strategy for lunar regolith coring

Abstract

Drilling & coring is the most common technique on planet exploration. A double-helix drill tool with a flexible coring tube has been developed for China lunar exploration mission. However, the research about automatic control on the drilling parameters is also of great importance for exploration mission. Based on threshold judgment about penetrating force, an automatic drilling strategy is proposed for lunar regolith coring. Through the adjustment of the penetrating velocity, the penetrating force would stay in its normal value for the security of the drilling and coring system. Drilling and coring experiments based on the exploration system are necessary for the matching between the drilling parameters driven by the automatic drilling strategy and the drilling loads, which is also a useful experience for the drilling exploration on lunar.