Kojiro Iizuka of Shibaura Institute of Technology, Japan

Wheeled rovers, which are capable of wide-area and detailed exploration, are widely used for lunar and planetary exploration to expand human activity areas. The Moon and planets have many steep slopes such as craters, and their surfaces consist of loose soil called regolith. When a rover traverses such loose soil slopes, there is a risk that the rover may deviate from the target path due to skidding. 
Therefore, it is necessary to suppress or decrease skidding. In this presentation, wheel designs based on knowledge obtained from traveling tests are introduced. Moreover, some mobility methods that utilize the characteristics of loose soil are also reported.

Biography:

Kojiro Iizuka is a Professor in the Department of Systems Engineering and Science at Shibaura Institute of Technology. Currently, he is a visiting researcher at the Lodz University of Technology in Poland. Previously, he was in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Robotics at Shinshu University for 8 years. He received his Doctorate in Engineering from the Graduate University for Advanced Studies in 2006. His teaching and research interests are in the areas of terramechanics and robotics.