A Mole-Type Drilling Robot for Lunar Subsurface Exploration

Abstract

This paper proposes a new mole-like robot for the lunar subsurface exploration in the near future and the mechanism for forward movement. The mole robots have to carry the excavated regolith backward because of its high density. Therefore a new scheme is proposed, to move forward under the soil by making use of reactive force caused by pushing the discharged regolith. Simple experiments demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.