0906 / Experimental Investigation Of Increased Bearing Capacity When Imparting Vibration To Loose Ground In Low Atmospheric Pressure

Authors

Tomohiro Watanabe and Kojiro Iizuka

Paper presented at ISTVS 2024 | 21st International and 12th Asia-Pacific Regional Conference of the ISTVS Keywords: Loose soil; Bearing capacity; Vibration; Rovers for planetary exploration https://doi.org/10.56884/I6EQREI6

Abstract

Recently, legged robots have attracted considerable attention as highly mobile rovers for planetary exploration. However, the surfaces of celestial bodies such as Mars and the Moon are primarily loose, causing slippage due to surface deformation from the rover’s leg movements. To mitigate this, we proposed a walking method aimed at preventing slippage. In our previous study, we evaluated the effectiveness of this method using a legged testbed on sloped, loose ground. The results demonstrated improved mobility performance of the legged rover. It is crucial to investigate the increase in bearing capacity by imparting vibration in a realistic space environment to validate the effectiveness of the proposed method. This study examines the change in bearing capacity due to vibration under low atmospheric pressure, a condition found on Mars and the Moon. This condition affects the characteristics of ground sand due to decreased air resistance. Our findings provide valuable insights into using vibration in planetary exploration to enhance the performance of legged rovers. The experimental results indicate that the bearing capacity under low atmospheric pressure is nearly identical to that under standard atmospheric pressure, suggesting that atmospheric pressure conditions have minimal impact on the supporting force when vibration is applied.

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