Host: The Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers
Name : [in Japanese]
Date : June 05, 2019 - June 08, 2019
Rigid wheels and flexible wheels are used to lunar exploration rovers. Flexible wheels can make rovers more mobile because of avoiding stack and high traction performance. However, there are problems in terms of durability and crossing the slope. In order to solve these problems, wheels should change their flexibility depending on the situation. In this study, in order to further increase the running performance and durability of flexible wheels, we suggest the variable flexible mechanism. Moreover, we conduct experiments to confirm the effectiveness of the wheel that equipped a new mechanism.
