Study on locomotion systems of lunar exploration roverson loose soil

In future lunar exploration missions, lunar rovers are required to traverse over very rough terrain. On the lunar surface, there are covered with soils, which are named regolith. Regolith is easy to slide. Any stack is easy to occur to the rovers, which are running on the regolith. The rovers need the effective running systems that are not stack on regolith. This paper focuses on the running systems of the rovers, which are touching directly to the surface of regolith. There are some running systems for lunar rovers, like a vehicle with the circular typed wheel, the low stress wheel and the crawler type etc. The each running systems have each characteristics for traversing on soften soil (such as Regolith) and lugs such as fin on themselves surfaces. In this paper, the running experiments are carried out using locomotion systems (circular rigid wheel, pentagonal wheel, elastic wheel) to get knowledge of the effect of the interaction such as "the hardening effect" and "the orbit of lugs".