The SR institute provides simulation expertise for applications dedicated to the field of robotic planetary exploration. The collected know-how is both stored and accessible via libraries for further scientific use and also applied to space missions with planetary rovers (e.g. ExoMars rover; ESA), asteroid landers (e.g. MASCOT mobility unit; JAXA), or sub-surface operations (e.g. InSight HP3; NASA). System dynamics prediction and verification as well as model-based control and failure detection are the focus of the work.
Terramechanics is a major key to success in planetary exploration missions. Therefore, the SR Rover Simulation Toolkit for mobility system design provides access to a variety of soil interaction models like real-time capable solutions, models featuring plastic soil deformation and complex particle models for wheels as well as sub-surface operations. Model validation is based on experimental single-wheel and system-level tests as well as on available mission data.