Paper presented at the 16th European-African Regional Conference of the ISTVS
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Title: Suppressing the reduction of the traveling displacement on loose soil for rovers with the function of a wheel walking
Authors: Daisuke Fujiwara, Qingze He, and Kojiro Iizuka
Abstract: The rovers with cylindrical wheels have a risk of failing to move in the loose soil area, such as the surface of the lunar/planet. The movement using the supporting force of the locked wheel, for example, a wheeled walking, or push-pull locomotion, can reduce the risk. In the locomotion, the rover fixes a wheel to the ground and pushes or pulls the other wheel. Many studies have developed these kinds of rovers, for example, Scarab, Marsokhod, and ExoTeR. Furthermore, our previous studies confirmed that the increase in the supporting force by the increase in sinkage of the locked wheel suppresses the reducing the traveling distance. However, the problem is that increasing the traction load still reduces the amount of traveling distance, especially in loose soil with a slope. To address the problem, this paper focuses on the locomotion sequence of the wheel rotation during the pushing or pulling of the other wheel. Then, this paper proposes a method to change the amount of wheel slip during the push and pulling sequence. To confirm the effect, this paper performs a traveling experiment on loose soil using a small testbed rover. The travel-ing methods are push-pull locomotion, push-pull locomotion with large sinkage, and rotational wheel traveling. The slope angles are 15, 20, 25, 30, and 32. The wheel is a lugs wheel. The experimental results indicated that the method using the large slip during the push or pull scheme suppressed the reduction of the displacement.
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