Closed-loop traction control of lunar rover based on dynamic model

Traction of the planetary rover often used kinematics calculation method. When the rover is walking on rough terrain, this kind of open-loop control method can not drive the rover to follow the desired velocity efficiently. This paper describes an approach to implement the closed-loop traction control, which is based on the rover's dynamic model. As a redundancy robot, the dualistic relationship between traction torque and velocity is used to implement the wheel torque distribution. By using this method, the wheel velocity differences and the sum of the kinetic energy will be minimized. Through building the 3D virtual environment, simulation experiment supports the fact that the closed-loop traction control is much better than the traditional open-loop kinematics calculation method.