Comparison of Concentric Surface Planetary Explorations Using an Ackerman Rover in a Lunar Simulation

Automatic planetary exploration is the task of exploring the planetary surfaces using robots. While rovers like Curiosity and Perseverance have been utilized for planetary exploration, the testing of spiral and radial exploration techniques and the integration of new technology present challenges, mainly due to difficulties in replicating authentic planetary conditions. Thus, this paper presents the updates to the public repository of our simulated rover and lunar environment [1] to deploy a comparison of concentric exploration approaches within a simulated lunar environment. The simulation involves a six-wheel Ackerman rover leveraging various ROS 2 tools to navigate and explore the lunar surface. Results show that the radial exploration technique is better for performing the concentric exploration surface since the rover requires less time and traveled distance to explore the lunar surface.