Design and Trafficability Study of Flexible Wheel for Planetary Exploration Rover

To reduce sending costs,a flexible wheel configuration is proposed.The wheel is made of titanium alloy(Ti-6Al-4V)in consideration of the planetary environment factors(i.e.strong radiation,big temperature differences,high vacuum),and mass constraint of launch vehicle.The advantages of the proposed wheel involves the potential for:① small sending volume and mass,② large deployed area and volume to reduce wheel loading,③ a damping effect to smooth motion on rough terrain.To study the trafficability and tractive performance of the wheel concept,the drawbar pull and driven torque were calculated based on simplified model of terramechanics formulations.The results show that the wheel possesses sufficient drawbar pull to negotiate all types of soil stratums listed in this contribution.