A UGV-based modular robotic manipulator for soil sampling and terramechanics investigations

Abstract

Unmanned vehicles are a natural choice for accessing challenging or hazardous terrains, for instance oil sands tailings ponds, and performing tasks such as soil sampling and terramechanics investigations. In previously published work, an unmanned ground vehicle (UGV) named RTC-I was designed and built for this task by part of our group. The present article covers the design choices and technical details of a custom-built robotic manipulator, a soil sampler, and an instrumented wheel deployed onboard a second-generation UGV named RTC-II. The robotic manipulator is designed to provide the reach, payload capacity, ruggedness, and self-locking operation required for field operations. The soil sampler employs a curved scoop to minimize deformation of the collected sample. The instrumented wheel permits independent control of the normal load and the slip ratio during terramechanics investigations. Each of the three designs is deployed and successfully tested in field experiments. Measurements collected by the soil sampler and instrumented wheel will be used in future work dealing with sampler force modeling and real-time terrain parameter estimation, respectively.