Mechanism Design and Testing of a Mole-like Forelimb for Planetary Regolith - burrowing Exploration

The mole is a natural “plumber” with high burrowing efficiency, and its forelimb can provide a strong burrowing force that is several times its weight. This feature provides a unique thought to design highly efficient planetary regolith-burrowing robots. This paper proposes a mole-like forelimb for planetary regolith-burrowing exploration. First, we briefly reviewed the current status of mole-like burrowing robots. Then, we applied its bionic principle, burrowing trajectory, and burrowing mode to design the forelimb mechanism that meets the requirements of a specified burrowing trajectory. Further, based on this mechanism and the single degree-of-freedom (DOF) drive method, a cable-driven burrowing force amplification mechanism (BFAM) of the forelimb was designed, and a prototype was designed to experimentally study the kinematic characteristics of the forelimb at different burrowing depths. Finally, the results were analyzed, showing that the forelimb of the mole-like burrowing robot was reasonably designed. The burrowing force of the forelimb of the mole-like burrowing robot can be effectively increased without adding additional drive elements.