Terrain-Adaptive Grouser Wheel for Optimal Planetary Exploration: Design and Experimental Investigation

Abstract

Planetary rovers operating in extraterrestrial environments often encounter significant mobility challenges due to varying terrain features such as gradients and granularity. While recent works in multimodal wheel design have explored adjustments in stiffness, compliance, and diameter as a means to improve terrain adaptability, full wheel grouser-adjustable designs remain largely unexplored. Grousers are a compelling feature to actuate, as granular terrains tend to require increased grouser height for improved wheel performance. As a result, we introduce [Anonymized Robot Name], a multimodal wheel capable of continuously adjusting its grouser height for terrain adaptation. The platform was evaluated across four representative surfaces, including vinyl flooring, coarse rock, pea gravel, and sand under two packing states, spanning a range of granular conditions. Results from 750 experimental trials demonstrate that adaptive deployment reduces slip by 30.0--58.0\% and improves travel time and energy consumption by up to 77.4\% in granular regimes relative to fixed configurations. Using the terrain trial data, a simplified scaling analysis was developed and validated, suggesting a relationship between terrain granularity and optimal grouser height for the tested configuration. No single grouser height minimized slip across all terrains, underscoring the limitations of fixed-wheel systems commonly used for planetary exploration. This observation reinforces the potential of grouser-adaptive morphology, such as [Anonymized Robot Name], as an effective solution for enhancing rover mobility across diverse and mobility-challenging extraterrestrial environments.