The Kapvik Robotic Mast: An Innovative Onboard Robotic Arm for Planetary Exploration Rovers

Planetary rovers have played significant roles in exploring potential landing sites on Mars and the moon, and they will continue to work as one of the most effective tools for future planetary missions. Sample acquisition for on-site analysis and possible return to earth is one of the most challenging and promising missions for planetary exploration. The Kapvik microRover is a smart, reconfigurable all-terrain multimission microRover prototype that was developed to address the challenges of planetary exploration and sample acquisition. The Kapvik microRover consists of a mobile platform, an onboard robotic mast, and a number of scientific sensors. This article presents the development of the Kapvik robotic mast, which combines a robotic arm and microRover mast, delivering both of their functions. Namely, the innovative robotic mast can perform sample acquisition and transfer for storage as well as assist the microRover in navigation and inspection. To satisfy the stowage requirements and provide triangular support for the navigation cameras, a novel locking mechanism and associated control techniques are designed to enable self-locking and unlocking of the robotic mast. A prototype has been developed for the Canadian Space Agency, and extensive experiments have been conducted to validate the proposed design.