New rocker-bogie and terramechanics-based wheel/soil interaction models for planetary rovers

Mars rovers have to this point been almost completely reliant on the solar panel/rechargeable battery combination as a source of power. Curiosity, currently en route, relies on radio isotope decay as its source of electrical power. Given the limited amount of space available for solar panels and that the wattage available from radioisotope decay is limited; power is clearly a critical resource for any rover. The goal of this work is to estimate the energy cost of traversing terrains of various properties. Knowledge of energy costs for terrain traversal will allow for more efficient path planning enabling rovers to have longer periods of activity. Our system accepts grid-based terrain elevation data in the form of a Digital Elevation Model (DEM) along with rover and soil parameters, and uses a newly developed model of the most common rover suspension design (rocker-bogie) along with a terramechanics-based wheel-soil interaction model to build a map of the estimated torque required by each wheel to move the rover to each adjacent terrain square. Future work will involve real world testing and verification of our model.