Development of Front-Actuation-Type Excavating Unit for Lunar Excavating Exploration Robot “LEAVO”

Abstract

In recent years, expectations related to the discovery of novel resources and the understanding of planet origins in lunar underground exploration have emerged. In a lunar underground environmental survey, unmanned small excavators are required from the viewpoint of transportation cost and safety. Therefore, we have developed a small excavating robot, "LEAVO," which uses an earthworm's peristaltic motion as a propulsion method. Herein, we have proposed a distributed driving system (DDS) as a new driving system in an excavation unit for curving and horizontal excavation. First, we have developed and tested the DDS. Subsequently, we have confirmed the feasibility of the proposed system through performance evaluation and drilling experiments.