With a growing number of nations interested in planetary exploration, research and development of extraterrestrial rovers have been intensified. The usual practice is to test the performances of rovers on soil simulants on earth, prior to their deployment to extraterrestrial bodies. It is noted that in the tests the soil simulant is subject to the earth gravity, while the terrain on the extrate...

Analysis of stress distributions under lightweight wheeled vehicles Report Title In recent years, the need for reliable modeling tools for lightweight robotic systems deployed on various terrains has spurred research efforts into development of vehicle terrain interaction (VTI) models. This paper presents an analysis of rigid wheels dry sand interaction and compares experimental results with pr...

Environmental issues and rising fuel prices necessitate better energy efficiency in all sectors. Shipping industry is a stakeholder in environmental issues. Shipping industry is responsible for approximately 3% of global CO₂ emissions, 14-15% of global NO(X) emissions, and 16% of global SO(X) emissions. Ship trim optimization has gained enormous momentum in recent years being an effective opera...

This paper considers wheeled vehicles traversing unknown terrain, and proposes an approach for identifying the unknown soil parameters required for vehicle driving force prediction (drawbar pull prediction). The predicted drawbar pull can potentially be employed for traversability prediction, traction control, and trajectory following which, in turn, improve overall performance of off-road whee...

A rover is a planetary surface exploration device designed to move across the ground on planet or planetary-like body. Exploration rovers are increasingly becoming vital part of search for scientific evidence and discoveries satellite Sun, such as Moon Mars. Reliable behavior predictable locomotion important. Understanding soil its interaction with wheels—the terramechanics—is great importance ...

Introduction: During the past planetary surface missions, few instruments have been deployed to directly assess soil physical properties like density, soil strength (internal friction and cohesion), and pressure/sinkage curves, or their spatial variation. Several Soviet lunar missions were equipped with small cone vane penetrometers, and the Apollo astronauts also used two different manual pene...

This paper details the CFD validation studies carried out as a pre-requisite for multi-fidelity CFD-based design optimization of high-speed passenger-only ferries aimed at reducing far-field wake energy that causes beach erosion. A potential flow code (WARP) and a URANS code (CFDShip) were validated using full-scale measurements of resistance, sinkage, trim, and far-field wake train obtained ov...

Position control alone is not sufficient for practical motion control of a legged robot when it walks on softuneven terrain or in an unknown environment. In order to improve terrain adaptability of walking robots, foot force control is needed. In this article, a foot force/position adjustment method, the hybrid Ground-Learning model and Active Compliance force control method (in short, the hybr...

Geological formations, environmental conditions, and soil mechanics frequently generate undesired effects on rovers' mobility, such as slippage or sinkage. Underestimating these may compromise the operation lead to a premature end of mission. Minimizing mobility risks becomes priority for colonising Moon Mars. However, addressing this challenge cannot be treated equally every celestial body sin...