Development of Both-Ends Supported Flexible Auger for Lunar Earthworm-Type Excavation Robot LEAVO

Underground exploration of the moon has recently attracted attention from the global community. However, sufficient exploration has not been carried out yet. To achieve such an exploration, we developed a lunar earthworm-type excavation robot, called LEAVO, and confirmed its usefulness in a vertical excavation. Therefore, we now work to make LEAVO be able to excavate curving borehole for gathering regolith samples at a particular layer. For the excavation unit to achieve a curving excavation, it is necessary to 1) develop a flexible excavation instrument and 2) excavate a target diameter hole (allowing LEAVO to continually propel into a curving hole). Requirement 1) has already been achieved. Therefore, in this paper, to achieve requirement 2), we propose a both-ends supported flexible auger and its dust-proofing system. We then describe an excavation test conducted using the proposed excavation unit and confirm its excavation capability.