Abstract
Planetary rovers usually slip on a surface of the planet because of sandy and loose ground. Because of the slip, it becomes very difficult for rovers to follow a target trajectory. In the worst case, the rover falls into a state of stack. To avoid such situation, it is very important to understand the relationship between wheels and the ground, and slip-ratio is one of the important parameters. To estimate the slip-ratio online, we developed a wheel with built-in force sensor array (BFSA-wheel) which enables measurement of distribution of normal stress. Based on terrarnechanics approach, slip-ratio can be calculated. by measuring the distribution of normal stress. In this paper, we report our experimental result of slip-ratio estimation by using the BFSA-wheel. Then we discuss a possibility of slip-ratio-estimation based on our proposed method.
