Gear Stress Analysis and Discrete Optimization for Wheel-legged Rover

The wheel-legged rover with a double-half-revolution mechanism uses two tandem planetary gear trains to drive. Its virtual prototype model was built in COSMOS Motion software, and the mechanical data of each gears of the wheel-legged rover were obtained by dynamic simulation under the typical working conditions. On this basis, the finite element analysis model of the wheel-leg planetary gear was established and its stress analysis was done. The discrete optimization mathematical model was built with the optimization target of minimizing the rover's wheel-leg planetary gear volume and the constraint condition of keeping the Mises stress applied on the dedendum under the admissible Mises stress. Based on ANSYS Parametric Design Language (APDL), the optimization design was done for the above gear based on discrete optimization method. The result shows that the optimized gear not only meets the strength requirement, but also its weight is 58% lower than the original, which will provide a new effective method for optimizing the wheel-leg structure of the rover.