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Daisuke Fujiwara and Kojiro Iizuka
Some organizations in Japan have planned planetary explorations using a small rover. However, 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. Previous studies have mainly developed relatively large rovers over a mass of 10 kg. Meanwhile, our group has developed a small and lightweight (under a mass of a few kg) push-rolling rover with minimal configuration, and our previous studies indicated that the rover could climb steep slopes over 30 degrees with low slip. Planetary exploration rovers are required to move in an arbitrary direction; therefore, the developed rover also needs to have a function of a turning motion. This paper proposes the turning motion while inching for the push-rolling rover with minimal configuration and evaluates its performance by the traveling experiments at different conditions (driving conditions, and wheel shapes). The experimental results indicated that the proposed turning motion using high wheel slip and lug’s wheel realized turning with low slip on loose surfaces with steep slopes. Additionally, the experimental results also showed that the slip amount of the rotational center is lower than that of a normal skid-steering.
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