Study on planetary rover using earth pressure to traverse loose soil with steep slope

In planetary explorations, rovers are required to traverse rough terrain that often includes craters (traces of meteorite impacts) and rear cliffs (walls that become bare as a result of not being covered with soil). Hence, it is important for the rovers not to overturn or lose mobility while traversing such terrain. Planetary rovers therefore are required a high performance to traverse rough terrain like loose soil with steeps. Our proposed robot has high mobility performance, especially; it can traverse loose soil with steep slopes. The proposed mechanism can support on surface of loose soil with steep slope because of it has "piles" which are penetrated into the soil. In other word, this robot can use earth pressure to support itself weight on loose soil with steep slope. The proposed robot has two bodies and four pile's units. Two bodies are connected two ball screws units. Therefore, the mobility motion of bodies is fro-back system. Then, the piles can be penetrated into soil by mechanism with up-down system. In this study, we research the optimal piles, for instance, the optimal diameter and the optimal penetrated length. We will furthermore carry out traversing experiments using slope actually, 20°, 25°, 30°. The supporting force of a pile moreover is measured by using the proposed experiment device. From these results, we discuss traversing performance of the proposed mechanism.