A rover is a planetary surface exploration device designed to move across the ground on a planet or a planetary-like body. Exploration rovers are increasingly becoming a vital part of the search for scientific evidence and discoveries on a planetary satellite of the Sun, such as the Moon or Mars. Reliable behavior and predictable locomotion of a rover is important. Understanding soil behavior and its interaction with rover wheels—the terramechanics—is of great importance in rover exploration performance. Up to now, many researchers have adopted Bekker’s semiempirical model to predict rover wheelsoil interaction, which is based on the assumption that soil is deformable when a pressure is applied to it. Despite this basic assumption of the model, the pressure-sinkage relation is not fully understood, and it continues to present challenges for rover designers. This article presents a new pressure-sinkage model based on dimensional analysis (DA) and results of bevameter tests. DA was applied to the test results in order to propose a new pressure-sinkage model by reducing physical quantitative parameters. As part of the work, a new bevameter was designed and built so that it could be successfully used to obtain a proper pressure-sinkage relation of Korean Lunar Soil Simulant (KLS-1). The new pressure-sinkage model was constructed by using three different sizes of flat plate diameters of the bevameter. The newly proposed model was compared successfully with other models for validation purposes.

In this paper, we propose an algorithm that estimates the location of lunar rover using IMU and vision system instead of the dead-reckoning method using IMU and encoder, which is difficult to estimate the exact distance due to the accumulated error and slip. First, in the lunar environment, magnetic fields are not uniform, unlike the Earth, so only acceleration and gyro sensor data were used for the localization. These data were applied to extended kalman filter to estimate Roll, Pitch, Yaw Euler angles of the exploration rover. Also, the lunar module has special color which can not be seen in the lunar environment. Therefore, the lunar module were correctly recognized by applying the HSV color filter to the stereo image taken by lunar rover. Then, the distance between the exploration rover and the lunar module was estimated through SIFT feature point matching algorithm and geometry. Finally, the estimated Euler angles and distances were used to estimate the current position of the rover from the lunar module. The performance of the proposed algorithm was been compared to the conventional algorithm to show the superiority of the proposed algorithm.

Planetary exploration rovers are likely to make a trip on a winding and sloping road of irregular surfaces to the destination in order to accomplish scientific missions. One of the key technologies for rovers is a suspension for traveling and performing exploration missions; the suspension is an essential area of technology for a stable movement of a rover. In this study, an 8-wheel suspension is designed to enable efficient climbing of slopes on a passage to the destination. For the two front wheels among the eight wheels, the moment at the pivot connecting two wheels is derived when the distance between the wheels and the torque of wheels are same. A test experiment was performed to compare the magnitude of moment according to the change in tilt angle and the position of the pivot. Finally, a suspension design considering the position of the pivot was proposed to enhance the hill-climbing performance.

In recent years, a number of missions have been planned and conducted worldwide on the planets such as Mars, which involves the unmanned robotic exploration with the use of rover. The rover is an important system for unmanned planetary exploration, performing the locomotion and sample collection and analysis at the exploration target of the planetary surface designated by the operator. This study investigates the development of mobility system for the rover ground model necessary to the planetary surface exploration for the benefit of future planetary exploration mission in Korea. First, the requirements for the rover mobility system are summarized and a new mechanism is proposed for a stable performance on rough terrain which consists of the passive suspension system with 8 wheeled double 4-bar linkage (DFBL), followed by the performance evaluation for the mechanism of the mobility system based on the shape design and simulation. The proposed mobility system DFBL was compared with the Rocker-Bogie suspension system of US space agency National Aeronautics and Space Administration and 8 wheeled mobility system CRAB8 developed in Switzerland, using the simulation to demonstrate the superiority with respect to the stability of locomotion. On the basis of the simulation results, a general system configuration was proposed and designed for the rover manufacture.

The planetary exploration rover executes various missions after moving to the target point in an unknown environment in the shortest distance. Such missions include the researches for geological and climatic conditions as well as the existence of water or living creatures. If there is any obstacle on the way, it is detected by such sensors as ultrasonic sensor, infrared light sensor, stereo vision, and laser ranger finder. After the obtained data is transferred to the main controller of the rover, decisions can be made to either overcome or avoid the obstacle on the way based on the operating algorithm of the rover. All the planetary exploration rovers which have been developed until now receive the information of the height or width of the obstacle from such sensors before analyzing it in order to find out whether it is possible to overcome the obstacle or not. If it is decided to be better to overcome the obstacle in terms of the operating safety and the electric consumption of the rover, it is generally made to overcome it. Therefore, for the purpose of carrying out the planetary exploration task, it is necessary to design the proper suspension system of the rover which enables it to safely overcome any obstacle on the way on the surface in any unknown environment. This study focuses on the design of the new double 4-bar linkage type of suspension system applied to the Korea Aerospace Research Institute rover (a tentatively name) that is currently in the process of development by our institute in order to develop the planetary exploration rover which absolutely requires the capacity of overcoming any obstacle. Throughout this study, the negative moment which harms the capacity of the rover for overcoming an obstacle was induced through the dynamical modeling process for the rocker-bogie applied to the Mars exploration rover of the US and the improved version of rocker-bogie as well as the suggested double 4-bar linkage type of suspension system. Also, based on the height of the obstacle, a simulation was carried out for the negative moment of the suspension system before the excellence of the suspension system suggested through the comparison of responding characteristics was proved.

최근 미국, 유럽, 일본 등 우주선진국을 중심으로 달, 화성 등 행성 탐사를 위한 로버(Rover) 시스템에 대해 많은 연구 개발이 진행되고 있다. 행성탐사용 로버 시스템 기술 중 특히 주행장치, 차율 주행 알고리즘, 탑재체 등을 중심으로 많은 연구가 수행되고 있다. 이 논문에서는 실제 행성탐사에 앞서 지상에서 로버 주행장치의 주행성 및 안정성을 평가하기 위해 지상시험모델용 로버의 주행장치에 대한 개념 설계 내용을 소개하였다. 또한, 로버 주행장치의 기술적인 관점에서 해외 연구개발 사례를 분석, 기술하였다. 이를 통해 로버 주행장치 개발을 위한 요구사항들을 주행성과 안정성 관점을 고려하여 도출하였다. 설계된 로버 주행장치는 높은 주행성과 안전성을 만족하기 위해 6족을 가지고 있으며, 각 다리의 관절을 제어하는 능동 서스펜션(Active Suspension)을 적용하였다. 이러한 종류의 주행장치 개념은 근미래 (Constellation 프로그램)에 수행될 유인달 탐사에서 이동 및 거주 장치로써 NASA의 ATHELE을 통해 처음 적용하여 개발하고 있다. 이 연구에서 제안된 장치 개념은 이와 달리 우리나라에서 앞으로 수행할 무인소형 달탐사에 적용하고자 설계되었다. 이 논문에서 소개된 내용은 향후 국내에서 행성탐사용 로버시스템을 본격적으로 개발하고자 할 때 유용한 참고자료 및 경험을 제공할 것이다.