On-line terrain parameter estimation for planetary rovers

Future planetary exploration missions will require rovers to traverse very rough terrain with limited human supervision. Wheel-terrain interaction plays a critical role in rough-terrain mobility. In this paper an on-line estimation method that identifies key terrain parameters using on-board rover sensors is presented. These parameters can be used for accurate traversability prediction or in a traction control algorithm. These parameters are also valuable indicators of planetary surface soil composition. Simulation and experimental results show that the terrain estimation algorithm can accurately and efficiently identify key terrain parameters for loose sand.

[1]  M. G. Bekker,et al.  Theory of land locomotion , 1956 .

[2]  A. R. Reece,et al.  Soil stresses and deformations beneath rigid wheels , 1967 .

[3]  A. R. Reece,et al.  Prediction of rigid wheel performance based on the analysis of soil-wheel stresses part I. Performance of driven rigid wheels , 1967 .

[4]  B. W. Firth,et al.  Soil stresses and deformations beneath rigid wheels , 1968 .

[5]  A. R. Jumikis.  Introduction to Terrain-Vehicle Systems , 1970 .

[6]  H. J. Moore,et al.  Surface materials of the Viking landing sites , 1977 .

[7]  Y. Nohse,et al.  A measurement of basic mechanical quantities of off-the-road traveling performance , 1991 .

[8]  Nadine N. Tschichold-Gürman,et al.  The development of a robot terrain interaction system for walking machines , 1994, Proceedings of the 1994 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation.

[9]  Brian H. Wilcox,et al.  Non-geometric hazard detection for a Mars microrover , 1994 .

[10]  Itzhak Shmulevich,et al.  A new field single wheel tester , 1996 .

[11]  R. Volpe,et al.  Microrover Research for Exploration of Mars , 1996 .

[12]  Hugh F. Durrant-Whyte,et al.  Estimation of track-soil interactions for autonomous tracked vehicles , 1997, Proceedings of International Conference on Robotics and Automation.

[13]  Lee F. Sword,et al.  Lightweight rovers for Mars science exploration and sample return , 1997, Other Conferences.

[14]  Rover Team.  Characterization of the Martian surface deposits by the Mars Pathfinder rover, Sojourner. Rover Team. , 1997, Science.

[15]  H. Das,et al.  Autonomous Rover Technology for Mars Sample Return , 1999 .

[16]  Steven Dubowsky,et al.  MOBILE ROBOT ROUGH-TERRAIN CONTROL (RTC) FOR PLANETARY EXPLORATION , 2000 .

[17]  Stergios I. Roumeliotis,et al.  Sensors and algorithms for small robot leader/follower behavior , 2001, SPIE Defense + Commercial Sensing.

[18]  Karl David Iagnemma,et al.  Rough-terrain mobile robot planning and control with application to planetary exploration , 2001 .