Planetary Rover Wheel and Lower Leg Structural Design to Reduce Rock Entanglements

The SherpaTT rover wheels were found to become entangled in rocks during the last field deployment in Morocco. As human intervention would be impossible on Mars the aim is to reduce the possibility of rock entanglements by performing a mechanical redesign of the wheels. During this redesign care must be taken to ensure the current traction, slip-resistance, weight and strength are not adversely affected. In addition, the durability of the wheels will be investigated in terms of materials to review whether the current wheels would be suitable for a Mars deployment. An investigation into the grousers design has resulted in a changed design that aims to both reduce rock entanglements and increase wheel performance by increasing the number of grousers and utilising a chevron pattern.  An investigation into the wheel fork design is currently ongoing and aims to streamline the design whilst ensuring structural concerns are addressed. Materials have been investigated resulting in a recommendation to switch from using the 6000 class of aluminium to the 7000 due to the increase in material hardness. Following this stage the wheel fork design study shall be concluded and the new design built in CAD and potentially prototyped. The results of this master thesis aim to produce wheels which show reduced entanglements on rocks without detriment to wheel traction, slip resistance, weight or strength.