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 carlike 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 allwheel 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 wheeland- 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.