Algorithm analysis for a rover simulation platform

In recent years, the rover-based planetary exploration missions have put forward some new challenges to the simulation platforms for rovers. This paper introduces a simulation platform, ROSTDyn (ROver Simulation based on Terramechanics and Dynamics), for planetary rovers developed with C++ programming language on the basis of Vortex software. In this paper, the structure of ROSTDyn is introduced briefly. Key algorithms for developing ROSTDyn are presented in detail, including the computation of the contact-area parameters, the transformation of velocity and force, the balance of the forces, and the integration of the algorithms and the modules. The simulation results verify that the algorithms are right, the integration is effective and the simulation runs stable.