TRAVELS: A Multimodal Mobility Concept for Highly Capable Planetary Traverses

View Video Presentation: https://doi.org/10.2514/6.2022-4397.vidThe Artemis program and related NASA initiatives seek to enable further exploration of lunar regions that may assist future long-term human habitation, such as those containing high concentrations of volatiles. However, these areas are incredibly difficult to reach and explore with conventional robotic mobility systems: high slopes and pillowy soil around lunar permanently shadowed regions and the rocky interiors and difficult access points of lunar lava tubes create challenges to robotic traversal that wheeled robots with passive suspension systems are ill-equipped to handle. Adaptable mobility systems for future robotic explorers are necessary in order to tackle the challenges posed by such difficult terrain. This paper provides an overview of TRAVELS (Terrapin Rover Allows Versatile Exploration of the Lunar Surface), a proposed robotic architecture designed to enable the exploration of difficult and hostile lunar terrain using a novel wheel-on-limb mobility system paired with a tethered anchor mechanism for rappelling down steep slopes or caverns. The TRAVELS concept has been created by a team of graduate and undergraduate students at the University of Maryland as a finalist design in the National Institute of Aerospace's 2022 NASA BIG Idea Competition, with funding provided by the Maryland Space Grant Consortium and the NASA STMD. The expected final results of this development work are two concurrent physical prototypes: a full-scale, four-limbed system of 3D printed and commercial components capable of demonstrating the system's planetary exploration capabilities in Earth gravity; and an in-house machined and assembled single manipulator that matches the design and specifications of a flight-ready TRAVELS system, to be tested in simulated lunar conditions. Both prototypes will be completed and tested in October 2022 and shall serve as concepts for near- and mid-term robotic lunar surface and subsurface exploration missions.