Experimental study of grouser's effect for planetary rovers based on terramechanics

In the future, the planetary exploration missions, planetary robots are required to traverse over very rough terrain. On the lunar surface and Mars surface, there are covered with loose soil, namely "Regolith". The reason why the wheel is easy to occur the poor condition during traverse on loose soil is not yet clear in detail. We use Terramechanics model for analyzing the mechanism of slipping and sinking behavior. Terramechanics model which is widely used as locomotion model for some lunar rovers is applicable to only circular wheel. So, it is not easy to apply to wheel with grousers. Therefore, firstly, we simulated the conventional model to confirm the defference between the wheel without grousers and with grousers. Secondly, we carry out the running experiments using the rigid circular wheel (with and without grousers) to compare with simulation results. From these results, we consider the difference between the conventional model and the real wheel's model.