A leg-wheel prototype rover designed to climb steep slope of uncompacted loose sand

An unmanned rover is widely used for exploration, for example planetary rovers and surveying in places too dangerous for a person to enter, such as poisonous, radioactive and high volcanic activity areas. It is very important for the rover to be able to maintain mobility in all ground conditions, as the success of the operation depends on it. Most of the current rovers are equipped with wheels or tracks, which have a high tendency to get stuck when climbing steep slope made out of loose sand. We are developing a legged-wheel prototype rover that is mechanically simple, which is designed to climb steep slope of loose sand with the help of an independent variable center of gravity mechanism and adjustable leg angle. Experiments were done on natural uncompacted loose sand and the soft sand slope climbing performance of the mechanism is compared with a wheel with grousers. The effect of the position of the center of gravity on the climbing performance is also investigated.