Terrain-Adaptive Grouser Wheel for Optimal Planetary Exploration: Design and Experimental Investigation
Planetary rovers face mobility challenges on varying terrains. Researchers introduce a multimodal wheel that continuously adjusts grouser height. In 750 trials across four surfaces, adaptive deployment reduced slip by 30-58% and improved travel time and energy by up to 77.4% on granular terrains, highlighting limitations of fixed wheels.
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Key points
- A novel wheel with adjustable grouser height adapts to different terrains
- 750 experiments show slip reduction of 30-58% and up to 77.4% improvement in travel time and energy on granular surfaces
- No single grouser height works for all terrains, proving fixed wheels are suboptimal
Why it matters
This matters because a novel wheel with adjustable grouser height adapts to different terrains.
Technical impact
May affect model selection, inference cost, product capability, and evaluation benchmarks.
[2605.24311] Terrain-Adaptive Grouser Wheel for Optimal Planetary Exploration: Design and Experimental Investigation
[Submitted on 23 May 2026]
Title:Terrain-Adaptive Grouser Wheel for Optimal Planetary Exploration: Design and Experimental Investigation
View a PDF of the paper titled Terrain-Adaptive Grouser Wheel for Optimal Planetary Exploration: Design and Experimental Investigation, by Vincent Griffo and Yashwanth Kumar Nakka
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Abstract:Planetary rovers operating in extraterrestrial environments often encounter significant mobility challenges due to varying terrain features such as gradients and granularity. While recent works in multimodal wheel design have explored adjustments in stiffness, compliance, and diameter as a means to improve terrain adaptability, full wheel grouser-adjustable designs remain largely unexplored. Grousers are a compelling feature to actuate, as granular terrains tend to require increased grouser height for improved wheel performance. As a result, we introduce [Anonymized Robot Name], a multimodal wheel capable of continuously adjusting its grouser height for terrain adaptation. The platform was evaluated across four representative surfaces, including vinyl flooring, coarse rock, pea gravel, and sand under two packing states, spanning a range of granular conditions. Results from 750 experimental trials demonstrate that adaptive deployment reduces slip by 30.0--58.0\% and improves travel time and energy consumption by up to 77.4\% in granular regimes relative to fixed configurations. Using the terrain trial data, a simplified scaling analysis was developed and validated, suggesting a relationship between terrain granularity and optimal grouser height for the tested configuration. No single grouser height minimized slip across all terrains, underscoring the limitations of fixed-wheel systems commonly used for planetary exploration. This observation reinforces the potential of grouser-adaptive morphology, such as [Anonymized Robot Name], as an effective solution for enhancing rover mobility across diverse and mobility-challenging extraterrestrial environments.
Comments: Under Review
Subjects:
Robotics (cs.RO)
Cite as: arXiv:2605.24311 [cs.RO]
(or arXiv:2605.24311v1 [cs.RO] for this version)
https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2605.24311
arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite (pending registration)
Submission history
From: Yashwanth Kumar Nakka [view email] [v1] Sat, 23 May 2026 00:37:44 UTC (15,950 KB)
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