Study on climbing strategy and analysis of Mars rover

• Published in: Journal of field robotics Vol. 40; no. 5; pp. 1172 - 1186
• Main Authors: Chen, Zhen, Zou, Meng, Pan, Dong, Chen, Lining, Liu, Yansong, Yuan, Baofeng, Zhang, Qiang
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Hoboken Wiley Subscription Services, Inc 01.08.2023
• Subjects: Bionics; Climbing; climbing methods; climbing strategy; dense and soft terrain; Mars; Mars rovers; Safety; Slopes; Soils; Strategy; Zhurong Mars rover
• ISSN: 1556-4959; 1556-4967
• DOI: 10.1002/rob.22177

To ensure the safety and efficiency of Zhurong Mars rover when climbing a slope on Mars, the forces of the rover under four climbing methods, which are normal climbing, Z‐type climbing, diagonal climbing, and bionic wriggle climbing, are analyzed. Each method corresponds to different maximum climbing slopes. The experiments are carried out with a backup rover on dense and soft terrains to determine the range of climbing slope for different climbing methods. According to the slope, peak current, cost of transport, and state of terrain, the climbing strategy is given. For dense and soft terrains, the soil cohesive is 0.99 and 1.4 kN/mn+1 and soil friction modules are 1528 and 700 kN/mn+2, respectively. Specifically, normal climbing is recommended for low‐range slopes, while Z‐type or diagonal climbing are suggested for medium‐range slopes, and bionic wriggle climbing is found to be optimal for high‐range slopes. To ensure the safety of the Zhurong Mars rover, it fails climbing if the critical values are exceeded. These results provide valuable insights for human operators when planning the rover's slope‐climbing actions on Mars.