1P1-J12 Study on Flexible Wheels for Lunar Exploration Rovers to traverse Loose Soil(Wheeled Robot/Tracked Vehicle)

Lunar rovers are required to move on rough terrains such as in craters and rear cliffs where it is scientifically very important to explore. Recently, wheel typed rovers are popular for planetary exploration missions. However, there is a problem that the wheel typed rovers have possibility of stack. Therefore, this paper investigates a mechanism of kinetic behavior between the wheels of the exploration rovers and loose soil. This paper proposes the flexible wheel. The flexible wheel has the surface which can be changed flexibly toward rough terrain. Therefore, we measure the contact angle between flexible wheel and loose soil using sensor. Moreover, this result are compared with the result of rigid circular wheel.