SCM - A Novel Approach for Soil Deformation in a Modular Soil Contact Model for Multibody Simulation

Abstract

The locomotion performance of rovers has become increasingly important in space robotics. To simulate situations, like the mmobilization of a rover in granular soils, tools capable of simulating the interaction of wheels with soft sandy unstructured terrain are needed. In order to examine the influences of terramechanical effects, like multi-pass or rutting, on rover system level precise, but yet efficient models are needed. The Soil Contact Model (SCM) is designed to model these effects efficiently and incorporate them into multibody simulations. SCM was first introduced in 2008. Recent developments were focused on a new soil deformation algorithm based on theoretical soil mechanics. This article presents functional principle of SCM and focuses on the novel soil deformation approach.