Predicting Terrain Traversability from Thermal Diffusivity

Cunningham, Chris; Wong, Uland; Peterson, Kevin; Whittaker, William

doi:10.1007/978-3-319-07488-7_5

Cited by 7 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 21 publications

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“…Similarly, as depth of surface sand increases thermal inertia [44] and traversability [4] both decrease. A correlation between the thermal properties of granular terrain and traversability has been demonstrated experimentally on Earth [13,12]. A qualitative example is shown in Figure 1.…”

Section: Relation To Mobilitymentioning

confidence: 80%

“…In a granular material, thermal inertia is strongly influenced by many of the same physical characteristics that influence wheel terrain interaction, which suggests that thermal inertia measurements could improve predictions of traversability [9]. Recent work has used this relationship to distinguish loose and compact granular materials both experimentally on Earth [12,13] and in simulation on the Moon [14]. Unfortunately, due to differences in geology, gravity, and atmospheric pressure, showing a correlation between thermal inertia and mobility on Earth and the Moon is not a guarantee that the same correlation exists on Mars.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Improving Slip Prediction on Mars Using Thermal Inertia Measurements

Cunningham

Nesnas

Whittaker

2017

Robotics: Science and Systems XIII

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Abstract-Rovers operating on Mars have been delayed, diverted, and trapped by loose granular materials. Vision-based mobility prediction approaches often fail because hazardous sand is difficult to distinguish from safe sand based on surface appearance alone. Unlike surface appearance, the thermal inertia of terrain is directly correlated to the same geophysical properties that control slip. This paper presents a quantitative analysis showing that considering thermal inertia improves rover slip prediction on Mars using in-situ data from the Curiosity rover. Thermal inertia is estimated for each slip measurement in sand using both on-board and orbital instruments. Slip models are learned using a mixture of experts approach where the experts are identified using thermal inertia. Two-expert models are compared to a single-expert, vision-only model to show that slip predictions are improved by separating high-slip, low thermal inertia sand from low-slip, high thermal inertia sand. These results support the hypothesis that the consideration of thermal inertia improves mobility estimates for rovers on Mars.

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Section: Relation To Mobilitymentioning

confidence: 80%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Improving Slip Prediction on Mars Using Thermal Inertia Measurements

Cunningham

Nesnas

Whittaker

2017

Robotics: Science and Systems XIII

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“…The soil shear deformation under the action of track or wheel provides the soil thrust F which determines the tractive effort. F is calculated in formula (13) where W is the normal load on the track; b is the contact width; l is the contact length; n, k c and k Φ are pressure-sinkage parameters for the Bekker equation; A is the contact area; c is the cohesion parameter; Φ is the angle of internal shearing friction; K is the shear deformation modulus; i is the longitudinal track slip.…”

Section: Semi-empirical Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Currently, the cone penetrometer technique and the bevameter technique are widely used in the measurement of the mechanical properties of terrain for the study of vehicle mobility in the field. The selection of the technique for measuring terrain properties is closely related to the method of approach chosen for the study of vehicle-terrain interaction [13,14]. For a vehicle passing given terrain safely without sinking, the soil strength measured by cone penetrometer must bigger than vehicle cone index [15].…”

Section: Trafficability Of Off-road Vehiclementioning

confidence: 99%

Application of Terramechanics in Off-road Vehicle Performance Prediction

Wang¹,

Zhang²,

Wang³

et al. 2018

dtetr

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This paper is an introduction of terramechanics and its application in off-road vehicle mobility prediction. Firstly the concept of terramechanics is introduced. Terramechanics is an important branch of applied mechanics in which the interaction between the vehicle and its operating terrain is studied. Secondly, many well-known techniques in terramechanics, such as Cone Penetrometer technique, Bevameter technique are introduced. By comparing the RCI of soil with VCI of vehicle, trafficability of Off-road vehicle can be determined which predicts the "go/no go" property of vehicle. Furthermore, to predict the speed behavior of off-road vehicle over trafficable terrain, three types of analyzing methods, empirical, semi-empirical, computer-aided, are presented in detail. It is evident that computeraided method is much more efficient in simulating terrain-vehicle interaction and produces more realistic prediction in vehicle mobility. Therefore, it is meaningful to develop computer-aided method to provide engineers with powerful parametric analysis in vehicle performance and design.

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