The NASA Lunar Electric Rover (LER) has been developed at Johnson Space Center as a next generation mobility platform. Based upon a twelve wheel omni-directional chassis with active suspension the LER introduces a number of novel capabilities for lunar exploration in both manned and unmanned scenarios. Besides being the primary vehicle for astronauts on the lunar surface, LER will perform tasks such as lunar regolith handling (to include dozing, grading, and excavation), equipment transport, and science operations. In an effort to support these additional tasks a team at the Kennedy Space Center has produced a universal attachment interface for LER known as the Quick Attach. The Quick Attach is a compact system that has been retro-fitted to the rear of the LER giving it the ability to dock and undock on the fly with various implements. The Quick Attach utilizes a two stage docking approach; the first is a mechanical mate which aligns and latches a passive set of hooks on an implement with an actuated cam surface on LER. The mechanical stage is tolerant to misalignment between the implement and the LER during docking and once the implement is captured a preload is applied to ensure a positive lock. The second stage is an umbilical connection which consists of a dust resistant enclosure housing a compliant mechanism that is optionally actuated to mate electrical and fluid connections for suitable implements. The Quick Attach system was designed with the largest foreseen input loads considered including excavation operations and large mass utility attachments. The Quick Attach system was demonstrated at the Desert Research And Technology Studies (D-RATS) field test in Flagstaff, AZ along with the lightweight dozer blade LANCE. The LANCE blade is the first implement to utilize the Quick Attach interface and demonstrated the tolerance, speed, and strength of the system in a lunar analog environment.


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    Title :

    Quick Attach Docking Interface for Lunar Electric Rover


    Contributors:

    Conference:

    12th Biennial International Conference on Engineering, Construction, and Operations in Challenging Environments; and Fourth NASA/ARO/ASCE Workshop on Granular Materials in Lunar and Martian Exploration ; 2010 ; Honolulu, Hawaii, United States


    Published in:

    Publication date :

    2010-03-11




    Type of media :

    Conference paper


    Type of material :

    Electronic Resource


    Language :

    English




    Quick Attach Docking Interface for Lunar Electric Rover

    Schuler, J.M. / Nick, A.J. / Immer, C. et al. | British Library Conference Proceedings | 2010


    Quick Attach Docking Interface for Lunar Electric Rover

    Schuler, J.M. / Nick, A.J. / Immer, C. et al. | British Library Conference Proceedings | 2010


    Quick Attach Docking Interface for Lunar Electric Rover

    Schuler, Jason M. / Nick, Andrew J. / Immer, Christopher et al. | NTRS | 2010


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