In the project Virtual Crater, a real-time capable virtual lunar testbed to plan, program and evaluate missions of lunar surface exploration is developed. It also supports the presentation of new development concepts. An effective simulation framework to optimize system parameters by precisely modeling and simulating the given lunar scenarios close to real time is proposed. Emphasis has been laid on real-time capabilities to intuitively support the system construction and on elaborate soil contact models and the identification of the respective parameters of regolith. A set of real and virtual terramechanics testbeds is developed where reference experiments to verify and adapt the leg-soil contact model can be implemented. Using the proposed simulation framework, the high-fidelity simulation of a legged robot and the leg-soil contact are achieved.
This project is started on 1st of May 2009 and will be ended on 31st of April 2012. In this project, DFKI is cooperating in a partnership with RIF (Dortmunder Initiative zur rechnerintegrierten Fertigung e.V.)