Steering characteristics of an exploration rover on loose soil based on all-wheel dynamics model

In this paper, steering characteristics of an exploration rover on loose soil is studied. Analysis of the steering characteristics is a key to plan and control the motion trajectory of a rover. Traditionally, such analysis has been made based on a model called "bicycle model." In that model, a four-wheel car-like vehicle is approximated by a two-wheel bicycle-like vehicle with the fore-wheels and the rear-wheels paired. However, the bicycle model does not show a good performance when a vehicle travels off-road. In order to analyze the steering characteristics of a vehicle on loose soil, the authors develop a model that respects the dynamics of each wheel\´s slip and skid behavior. The developed model is called all-wheel dynamics model. In the all-wheel dynamics model, the behavior of each wheel on loose soil is modeled based on terramechanics. The motion trajectory of the vehicle is obtained by numerical simulation using the wheel-and-vehicle dynamics model. The validity of the proposed model is examined by the experiments of a wheel and a vehicle using simulated lunar-surface soil. The experimental results show that the proposed model provides a better approximation than the traditional bicycle model.