Modeling and Measurement of Rigid Wheel-soil Interaction for a Lunar Rover

Based on soil's press-sinkage and shear models of terramechanics and passive earth pressure of soil mechanics, mathematical models of wheel-soil interaction are constructed for a rigid wheel of lunar rover moving or steering on deformable soil. For analysis of effect of soil parameters and wheel slips to rigid wheel locomotion, the wheel's performance parameters on different soil are computed through these models, such as drawbar pull, moving torque and steering torque to different slips. A novel test-bed is set up to test wheel's performance parameters, and experimental results of a rigid wheel on the soil validate the effectiveness of presented models.