Athul Pradeepkumar Girija , Rachana Agrawal , Ye Lu , Archit Arora , Maxim de Jong , Sarag J. Saikia , James M. Longuski
{"title":"A single wheel test rig for ocean world rovers","authors":"Athul Pradeepkumar Girija , Rachana Agrawal , Ye Lu , Archit Arora , Maxim de Jong , Sarag J. Saikia , James M. Longuski","doi":"10.1016/j.jterra.2023.07.001","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Ocean Worlds such as Europa and Enceladus are known to harbor subsurface liquid water oceans under their icy crust and are high-priority targets for in situ exploration. Compared to the Moon and Mars, Ocean Worlds likely present a significantly more challenging environment for surface mobility systems due to the extremely cold temperature, high radiation dosage, and poorly constrained material properties under these conditions. Small-diameter wheels such as those used by Mars rovers are prone to slip-sinkage in loose soil and damage from sharp rock and ice formations. A 4-wheel rover with a simple drive system and large deployable compliant tires is proposed as a solution for extreme terrain mobility on Ocean World surfaces. The present work describes the design and construction of a single wheel test rig and a prototype large-diameter deployable wheel for Ocean World rovers and initial test results. The test rig allows independent control of the vertical load, slip ratio, slip angle, and camber angle, and accommodates large-diameter deployable wheels. The test rig features a modular test bed that can simulate varied surface features such as fine-grained ice, smooth hard ice, sharp ice formations, and large ice boulder fields.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":50023,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Terramechanics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.4000,"publicationDate":"2023-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"1","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Journal of Terramechanics","FirstCategoryId":"5","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S002248982300054X","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q3","JCRName":"ENGINEERING, ENVIRONMENTAL","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 1
Abstract
Ocean Worlds such as Europa and Enceladus are known to harbor subsurface liquid water oceans under their icy crust and are high-priority targets for in situ exploration. Compared to the Moon and Mars, Ocean Worlds likely present a significantly more challenging environment for surface mobility systems due to the extremely cold temperature, high radiation dosage, and poorly constrained material properties under these conditions. Small-diameter wheels such as those used by Mars rovers are prone to slip-sinkage in loose soil and damage from sharp rock and ice formations. A 4-wheel rover with a simple drive system and large deployable compliant tires is proposed as a solution for extreme terrain mobility on Ocean World surfaces. The present work describes the design and construction of a single wheel test rig and a prototype large-diameter deployable wheel for Ocean World rovers and initial test results. The test rig allows independent control of the vertical load, slip ratio, slip angle, and camber angle, and accommodates large-diameter deployable wheels. The test rig features a modular test bed that can simulate varied surface features such as fine-grained ice, smooth hard ice, sharp ice formations, and large ice boulder fields.
期刊介绍:
The Journal of Terramechanics is primarily devoted to scientific articles concerned with research, design, and equipment utilization in the field of terramechanics.
The Journal of Terramechanics is the leading international journal serving the multidisciplinary global off-road vehicle and soil working machinery industries, and related user community, governmental agencies and universities.
The Journal of Terramechanics provides a forum for those involved in research, development, design, innovation, testing, application and utilization of off-road vehicles and soil working machinery, and their sub-systems and components. The Journal presents a cross-section of technical papers, reviews, comments and discussions, and serves as a medium for recording recent progress in the field.