Prediction of lunar regolith excavation resistance and optimization of excavation parameters for minitype sampler

Research on the minitype sampler's excavation resistance model of lunar regolith and the optimization of excavation parameters under low-gravity and low atmospheric pressure environment is conducted in this paper. The prediction model of lunar regolith excavation resistance is established, the soil cutting force and the soil penetration force are derived combined with the shear characteristics of lunar soil and its' elastic-plastic constitutive from the triaxial test simulation. On the basis of this model, for the purpose of lower resistance and higher collect ratio, optimal blade angle and blade depth in different bucket widths suitable for the lunar regolith sampling mission are determined by using the self-adapting genetic algorithm. The simulation results indicate that optimal blade angle and blade depth corresponding to different blade widths exist. With increase of the blade width, the optimal blade depth becomes larger, and the blade angle becomes smaller.