Recent exploration missions to celestial bodies have shown an increasing demand for surface based landers and rovers designed to perform experiments on the ground, rather than relying purely on traditional orbiting observatories. Many of the scientifically interesting locations have proven hazardous and difficult to reach and traverse, driving the need for different methods of locomotion. Some of these locations lie in deep, permanently shadowed craters or in rocky, highly uneven landscapes. Various wheeled, flying, jumping, and legged rovers have been proposed, some of which have been implemented with success and problems alike. The presented work focuses on a category of legged rovers intended to climb up steep slopes covered in soft soil or regolith, such as those found on crater walls on the Moon and Mars. The envisioned rover would utilized dynamic anchors on the feet of its legs to claw into the surface, engaging and disengaging with each step. This clawing effect can also be used to anchor a lander in near zero gravity on a comet or asteroid. A method for evaluating the performance of different dynamic anchors is proposed and implemented. Physical testing is performed by using a robotic arm to engage a series of anchors with a lunar regolith simulant while measuring the engagement, holding, and disengagement forces. A range of anchor geometries and engagement angles is evaluated and the results are analyzed to determine which parameters effect the holding force and in which way.
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