Towards automated Soil Preparation for Planetary Rovers - Methods for reproducible Measurements in Regolith Simulants

Abstract

Testing and qualification of planetary rovers most times
\nrequire the interaction with soil simulants. In order to
\nyield comparable results, nimble and accurate soil preparation
\nis required. Unfortunately state of the art preparation
\nmethods feature either bad reproducibility and/or
\ntake most of the time of the test campaigns. This often
\nleads to fewer, less reliable data in the narrow time
\nframe of planetary exploration missions, as many tests
\nneed to be repeated. The problem gets stronger the softer
\nthe simulant gets - thus worst-case scenarios, crucial for
\nrover missions, are least reliable. Hence in this article
\nmethods to automatically prepare soil simulants will be
\npresented and evaluated. Furthermore an outlook to fully
\nautomated testbed preperation and testing is given using
\nDLR’s robotic terramechanics laboratory TROLL.