Development of arm equipped single wheel rover: effective arm-posture-based steering method

We propose a new planetary rover system called "SMC-Rover". This system consists of one main body and some detachable units, which can work as child rover, and also become driving units of the main body. Each detachable unit, consisting of a single manipulator mounted on a wheel, is called "Uni-Rover". This paper discusses a new method of trajectory modelling and steering control optimization for the Uni-Rover, using the relation between arm posture and turning radius. The validity of the presented method is verified by computer simulations and experiments with an actual mechanical model. Thus, effective arm-posture-based steering method is introduced.