A Novel Mobility Concept for Terrestrial Wheel-Legged Lunar Rover

• DOI: 10.2139/ssrn.4679693
• Publication Date: 2023-12-30T05:19:42Z
• Authors: Mubarak Yakubu; Yahya Zweiri; Laith AbuAssi; Rana Azzam; Amna Busoud; Lakmal Seneviratne

The mobility design of lunar rovers is essential to the success space exploration missions. Current rover designs strive withstand harsh conditions such as rough terrains, atmospheric conditions, low visibility, reduced gravity, and longtraveled distances. In this paper, a novel concept for wheel-legged that leverages advantages both wheel-based leg-based locomotion developed. system designed using single actuator controls articulation four legs through 15 degrees freedom (DoF). DoF provide configurations necessary traversing uneven terrains commonly found on surface, overcoming excessive slippage zones. A rover, called Khalifa University Space Rover (KUSR), built developed tested in simulations real-world experiments. tests show KUSR capable symmetric asymmetric obstacles with heights above 20 cm slopes gradients 40◦. performance also compared Rashid by Mohammed Bin Center, 46 simulation experiments consist different types terrain features which include; obstacles, ditches, steady slopes, concave varying geometry parameters. two assessed based or failure during each experiment. achieves an average 77.3% rate against 48.63% rover. supplementary video available at https://youtu.be/tFQDknsS6DQ.