MECHANICAL DESIGN OF RECONFIGURABLE

PLANETARY ROVER

He Xinyuan

(Shenyang Institute of Automation, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang 110016)

Ma Shugen

(Department of Systems Engineering, Japanese Ibaraki University, Japan 316-8511)

Li Bin  Wang Yuechao

(Shenyang Institute of Automation, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang 110016)

Abstract: Based on the concept of reconfigurability, a new modular planetary rover system is designed for planetary exploration. It consists of the parent body and some children robots. A child robot is composed of the wheel part and the arm part, and has two moving modes. It can give output in different forms under various constraint conditions with only one actuator, so it can move during the two modes. The influence of the mechanical parameters on the rover locomotion is analyzed. The results are proved by the simulation and experiments. The method can be also applied to the parameterized design and parameterized adjustment of the rover.

Key words: Reconfigurability  Planetary rover  Mechanical parameter  Parameterized design

CLC No: TP242.3

国家高技术研究发展计划资助项目(2002AA422130). Received 20050103, received in revised form 20050704