Predict the Rover Mobility Over Soft Terrain Using Articulated Wheeled Bevameter

Wenyao Zhang; Shipeng Lyu; Feng Xue; Chen Yao; Zheng Zhu; Zhenzhong Jia

2022-10

10.1109/LRA.2022.3211153

IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters   Impact Factor & Quartile

2377-3774

Robot mobility is critical for mission success, especially in soft or deformable terrains, where the complex wheel-soil interaction mechanics often leads to excessive wheel slip and sinkage, causing the eventual mission failure. To improve the rover performance, online mobility prediction using vision, infrared imaging, or model-based stochastic methods have been used in the literature. This letter proposes an on-board mobility prediction approach using an articulated wheeled bevameter that consists of a force-controlled arm and an instrumented bevameter (with force and vision sensors) as its end-effector. The proposed bevameter, which emulates the traditional terramechanics tests such as pressure-sinkage and shear experiments, can measure the contact parameters ahead of the rover's body in real-time, and predict the slip and sinkage of the subsequent supporting wheels over the probed region. Based on the mobility prediction, the rover can select a proper path in order to avoid hazardous regions such as those covered with loose sand. Compared to the literature, our proposed method can avoid the complicated yet inaccurate vehicle-terrain interaction modeling and time-consuming stochastic prediction; it can also mitigate the inaccuracy issues arising in non-contact vision-based methods. We also conduct multiple experiments to validate the proposed approach and the applicability of the articulated bevameter as an on-board equipment to study wheel-terrain interaction mechanics.

Bevameter robot mobility soft terrain terramechanics traversability analysis

SCI

English

First

Science, Technology and Innovation Commission of Shenzhen Municipality[ZDSYS20200811143601004]

Robotics

Robotics

WOS:000866497700006

IEEE-INST ELECTRICAL ELECTRONICS ENGINEERS INC

Web of Science

Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Biomimetic Robotics and Intelligent Systems and Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Human-Augmentation and Rehabilitation Robotics in Universities, Department of Mechanical and Energy Engineering, Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen, China

Wenyao Zhang,Shipeng Lyu,Feng Xue,et al. Predict the Rover Mobility Over Soft Terrain Using Articulated Wheeled Bevameter[J]. IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters,2022,7(4):12062-12069.

Wenyao Zhang,Shipeng Lyu,Feng Xue,Chen Yao,Zheng Zhu,&Zhenzhong Jia.(2022).Predict the Rover Mobility Over Soft Terrain Using Articulated Wheeled Bevameter.IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters,7(4),12062-12069.

Wenyao Zhang,et al."Predict the Rover Mobility Over Soft Terrain Using Articulated Wheeled Bevameter".IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters 7.4(2022):12062-12069.