Mechanical Engineering

Productive lightweight robotic excavation for the moon and Mars
Exploration of the Moon and Mars calls for robots that are increasingly capable in regolith, or granular soil. Beyond traversing and …
Krzysztof Skonieczny, Matthew Delaney, David S Wettergreen, William L “Red” Whittaker
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Analysis of grouser performance to develop guidelines for design for planetary rovers
This paper addresses issues in the design of wheel grousers for planetary rovers. It has been shown in prior and related work that …
Hiroaki Inotsume, Krzysztof Skonieczny, David S Wettergreen
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Lightweight robotic excavation
Planetary excavators face unique and extreme engineering constraints relative to terrestrial counterparts. In space missions mass is …
Krzysztof Skonieczny
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Effect of bucket-wheel scale on excavation forces and soil motion
Bucket-wheels enable planetary rovers to perform lightweight digging operations in support of sustained space exploration. Using an …
GF Diaz Lankenau, K Skonieczny, WL Whittaker, DS Wettergreen
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Design and field experimentation of a prototype lunar prospector
Scarab is a prototype rover for Lunar missions to survey resources in polar craters. It is designed as a prospector that would use a …
David Wettergreen, Scott Moreland, Krzysztof Skonieczny, Dominic Jonak, David Kohanbash, James Teza
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