Design and Realization of Landing–Moving Integrated Gear for Mobile Lunar Lander

Abstract

For the needs of manned landing, station construction, and material transfer in future lunar exploration missions, the paper proposes a landing–moving integrated gear (LMIG) for mobile lunar lander (MLL), establishes and optimizes the models of cushioning energy-absorbing and movement planning, respectively, and conducts the prototype tests. First, the design requirements of LMIG are given, and the system composition of LMIG and the configuration design of each subsystem are introduced. Second, the effective energy-absorbing model of the aluminum honeycomb is established and experimentally verified, a three-stage aluminum honeycomb buffer is designed and experimentally verified, and the buffer mechanism of LMIG is verified by simulations under various landing conditions. Furthermore, the kinematic and dynamic models of LMIG are established, the moving gait is designed by the center of gravity trajectory planning method, and the driving trajectory during the stepping process is optimized with the goal of minimal jerk of motion. Finally, a cushioning test prototype and a walking test scaled prototype of LMIG are developed, and single leg drop test and ground walking test are carried out. The results show that the established model of LMIG is reasonable, the designed buffer and gait of LMIG are effective, the developed prototypes of LMIG have good cushioning and movement performance, the LMIG’s maximum value of overload acceleration is 6.5 g , and the moving speed is 108 m/h, which meets the design requirements.