Simultaneous control for position and vibration of planetary rover with flexible wheels

We present the synthesis procedure of the target profile for a motion control system to simultaneously control the sinkage and vibration of a planetary rover. The experimental result, using a single-wheel testbed on lunar regolith simulants, indicates that the sinkage is proportional to the magnitude of the maximum acceleration of the driving mechanism. Hence, we propose a method of suppressing the sinkage by designing an asymmetric acceleration profile as a target for a motion control system. Moreover, it was confirmed that the vibration due to the flexibility of the wheel is induced by self-motion, and we experimentally verified the reduction of vibration using the general command-shaping method.