Locomotion Performance Simulation And Analysis Of Lunar Rover Based On Virtual Prototype

This dissertation is supported by the project of national physical science foundation (60234030) and advanced research of NUDT."goddess in the moon"project has started up in 2004, So it is pressing to develop innovative lunar rover with freedom knowledge property right and excellent performance. Lunar rover is a mobile robot exploring harsh lunar environment. Rover development involves many new technologies, such as artificial intelligence, autocontrol, framework, communication, computer science, etc. The locomotion system is the basic and important subsystem of lunar rover. The rover performance and task life decide whether the exploration mission would succeed.The functional acquirements of lunar rover are analysied. Locomotion performance evaluation including terrainability, driving placidity over-obstacle ability, untipover stability, steering sensitivity etc., is built up and used to lunar rover. The configuration of American six-wheel-rocker-bogie rover is studied. Its virtual prototype is created, simulated and optimized using ADAMS. The optimal parameters are obtained. The main work of this paper is proposing a innovative lunar rover with two-brace-slider suspension. The distinct characteristic of the configuration is translating perpendicular displacement of wheels into horizontal one of slider along main rocker. The suspension, wheel and bodywork modules are built with the ideas of parameterization and modularization.The typical virtual prototype is also built up, simulated and optimized using ADAMS. Then, six-wheel- rocker-bogie rover and two-brace-slider rover are simulated in the same load, and the locomotion performances are compared. The results indicate that two-brace-slider rover has the same over-obstacle ability with rocker-bogie rover, better driving placidity, ground adaptability, steering delicacy and worse untipover stability than rocker-bogie rover. Finally, the prototype of two-brace-slider rover is developed to validate locomotion performance evaluation built in this paper.