Numerical modelling of flexible wheel-soil interaction for planetary rovers

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Space exploration is rapidly evolving and NASA has made firm commitments to return to the Moon in the 2020s and Mars in the 2030s. This includes the provision of robotics to support new missions to explore the Moon, Mars, asteroids, and other bodies in the solar system. Much of this effort will require the use of planetary rovers, which are autonomous space vehicles designed to move across a planet's surface. The mechanical properties of the underlying soils control the tractive performance and loose terrain may result in immobilization, such as that experienced by the Mars exploration rovers. Various wheel-soil interaction (terramechanics) theories have been developed previously and have been applied to planetary vehicles since the Apollo program. The addition of rigorous numerical modelling for the interpretation of soil-wheel interaction would increase the current range of techniques for rover design that are available. In this study, the FEM software ABAQUS will be used to develop finite element models of a flexible wheel rolling across a drained soil medium, which will be validated with existing single wheel-soil laboratory test bed data. A parametric study will be conducted to assess the influence of wheel dimensions, soil parameters (stiffness and strength), relative wheel-soil compressibility and interface properties on deformation and stresses of the soil-wheel system during sinkage and rolling. This initiative will contribute to the development and optimization of rover technology and will help the sector respond to urgent needs. It will provide better understanding of rover wheel technology, which is vital for rover mobility performance evaluation and overall rover design.