Dynamic Characterization of Compliant Wheel for Martian Rover: ARDITO
Enrico SABBATINI, Damiano CARRA, Enrico ZAPPINO
Abstract. This work presents the dynamic characterization of a compliant wheel [1] designed for ARDITO [2] a modular Martian rover. The wheel is composed of two main structures: a rigid Al2024 hub made from a single milled raw aluminum block and the external spring steel structure. The outer structure is made from twenty cylinders, an external skin and forty grousers, all made from C67 spring steel. This material ensures wheels’ elastic behavior, essential to navigate and adapt in different conditions, while keeping the design mechanically reliable. This study aims to compare a FEM [3] model of the compliant wheel, used to perform structural analyses, with an Experimental Modal Analyses (EMA) [4] through a vibrational test of both the internal hub and the elastic part. Since the materials are very different the central hub and the outer compliant structure were analyzed and compared separately but the same methodologies were applied to both structures. This combined study is a start to understanding the dynamic behavior of the locomotion system and pave the way to many more analyses in order to better understand the system and how it interacts with other structures. A key objective is to ensure that the wheel’s resonance modes do not couple with operational excitations, preventing unwanted dynamic amplification during planetary missions specially for what regards launch operations, where it is imperative to ensure that launch vibrations don’t resonate with the structure’s natural frequencies in order to prevent damages. This work was developed within the DIANA student team at Politecnico di Torino, which participated in competitions such as the Rover Challenge Series, bringing together student teams worldwide and individuals from various engineering disciplines to design a working space rover prototype.
Keywords
Experimental Modal Analysis, Finite Element Method, Modal Correlation, Martian Rover, Compliant Wheels, Team DIANA, ARDITO
Published online 7/20/2026, 5 pages
Copyright © 2026 by the author(s)
Published under license by Materials Research Forum LLC., Millersville PA, USA
Citation: Enrico SABBATINI, Damiano CARRA, Enrico ZAPPINO, Dynamic Characterization of Compliant Wheel for Martian Rover: ARDITO, Materials Research Proceedings, Vol. 69, pp 1407-1411, 2026
DOI: https://doi.org/10.21741/9781644904251-246
The article was published as article 246 of the book CEAS – AIDAA Conference 2025
Content from this work may be used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license. Any further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the title of the work, journal citation and DOI.
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