Proposal of walking to reduce slipping behavior using compaction effect of loose soil caused by a propagation of vibration for small light lunar planetary exploration rovers with legs

Abstract

Purpose of our research is to improve the movement performance of small leg typed rovers using effects caused by vibration propagation. When the loose ground is given vibration, there are two effects. One is to increase density of the loose ground, and the other is to increase sinkage of legs. If the density of the ground is increased by vibration/stop, the rovers are not easy to slip. This means that the shearing strength becomes large since the loose ground is given effect of vibration/stop. Moreover, when the sinkage of legs are increased, the supporting force becomes large. The difference of ground before and after vibrating are confirmed by implemented some experiments such as measurement of shearing strength, sinkage and earth pressure. As results, the value of shearing strength and sinkage of leg were increased after vibration. Also, the value of earth pressure was increased after vibration. Furthermore, these effects given by vibration/stop are confirmed using multi-legged rover. In experimental results, walking distance of proposed rovers with vibration was longer than one without vibration. From theses experimental results, we could get knowledge that the method using vibration/stop was very effective for the leg typed rovers.