Exploring antarctica using a novel Wind-propelled tumbleweed rover

Author

Shaorong Xie ; Chuan Zhu ; Yan Peng ; Jun Feng Yao ; Xudong Zou ; Kai Feng ; Jun Luo ; Gu, Jhen-Fong

Author_Institution

Sch. of Mechatron. Eng. & Autom., Shanghai Univ., Shanghai, China

fYear

2014

fDate

28-30 July 2014

Firstpage

1306

Lastpage

1311

Abstract

A wind-propelled tumbleweed rover with a novel structure that is used to explore Antarctica is presented in this paper. Different from other tumbleweed rovers, this one has a double-deck spherical shell and is powered by solar energy. Also, the influence of the tumbleweed´s mass and size to the motion performance of the tumbleweed is worked out by feasibility analysis. After that, the structure and control system of the tumbleweed are detailed introduced and the experiment of tumbleweed rover running in Antarctica successfully is reported. Results of the test verify the validity of the concept using a tumbleweed rover roaming in Antarctica inland to measure environmental parameters.

Keywords

motion control; off-road vehicles; Antarctica exploration; double-deck spherical shell; environmental parameters; feasibility analysis; motion performance; solar energy; tumbleweed control system; tumbleweed structure; wind-propelled tumbleweed rover; Antarctica; Control systems; Drag; Force; Resistance; Temperature measurement; Wind speed; Antarctica exploring; Wind-propelled; doubledeck spherical shell; tumbleweed rover;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Information and Automation (ICIA), 2014 IEEE International Conference on

Conference_Location

Hailar

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/ICInfA.2014.6932850

Filename

6932850