A piezoelectric tracked vehicle with potential application to planetary exploration

Abstract

A piezoelectric driving method for rover vehicles is proposed in this paper. Employing this method, a tracked vehicle driven by friction forces from a frame mounted with piezoelectric elements was developed. The vehicle is designed with no driver sprocket, no idler-wheel and no supporting bogie wheels, and the vehicle thus requires no lubrication and has potential application in planetary exploration. The frame consists of a pair of piezoelectric transducers. Each transducer comprises four annular parts jointed by beams adhered with piezoelectric ceramics. The tracks are set to the outer surface of the annular parts by means of track tension. Traveling rotating waves are generated by piezoelectric transducers in the annular parts, which generate microscopic elliptical motions at the interface of the tracks. The microscopic elliptical motions from the piezoelectric transducers drive the track vehicle to move. Finite elements analysis was carried out to verify the operation principle using commercial software ANSYS. Piezoelectric transducers were fabricated, assembled and tested to validate the concepts of the proposed rover vehicle and confirm the simulation results. A prototype vehicle with mass of 0.57 kg moves at a speed of 4.3 mm/s at a driving voltage of 250 V and operating frequency of 65.53 kHz. Robotic exploration of the lunar surface will provide important scientific data on climate, life history, and geologic resources. Landers and rovers for lunar exploration have been researched in recent decades. The main aim of research into lunar robotics exploration is to demonstrate technologies suitable for exploration of the lunar surface, including driving technologies for rover vehicles. Efficient rover vehicles that are compact, lightweight and consume little power are needed to meet the needs of lunar missions [1]. Five classes of locomotion systems are applicable to lunar/planetary exploration rovers: wheel, track, leg, bodyarticulation, and non-contact locomotion systems [2]. The chief advantage of legged robots is that they only need to overcome compaction resistance at the point of contact while wheeled and tracked robots that are considerably more complex than algorithms for wheeled and tracked systems. Among the above mentioned types of mobility system, wheeled and tracked systems have been considered the main candidates for planetary exploration, especially the exploration of Mars, in recent decades wide applications on Earth.The tracked (or caterpillar) concept is promising in that it offers low maximum ground pressure to promote vehicle performance (especially in the case of military vehicles) [3]. Tracks are generally preferred for general off-road applications as they offer low vehicle sinkage and thus low resistance to motion. Tracked vehicles have similar properties to wheeled vehicles and are generally favored for their higher tractional effort over more rugged terrain as they spread the load over a much wider area; a tracked vehicle will almost invariably offer greater drawbar pull than a fou...

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A Novel Self-Moving Framed Piezoelectric Actuator

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A novel traveling wave piezoelectric actuated tracked mobile robot utilizing friction effect

“…A wide variety of ultrasonic motors are emerging in succession as a result of broadening the application focus. Aiming at better adapting the complicated and changeable lunar surface topography and combining the intrinsic characteristics of tracked mechanisms, an innovative tracked vehicle utilizing the converse piezoelectric and friction effects was proposed in our previous study [36]. The tracked vehicle is driven by a pair of piezoelectric actuators based on the operating principle of traveling wave ultrasonic motors.…”