Design of a Novel Lunar Transportation System (FLOAT) consisting of Diamagnetically-Levitated Robots on a Flexible Film Track

A durable, long-life robotic transport system will be critical to the daily operations of a sustainable lunar base in the 2030's, as envisioned in NASA's Moon to Mars plan and mission concepts like the Robotic Lunar Surface Operations 2 (RLSO2), to transport regolith mined for ISRU consumables (H2O, LOX, LH2) or construction, and transport payloads around the lunar base and to / from landing zones or other outposts. In this work, we present component analysis, preliminary experimental results, and system designs for a novel lunar transportation system, FLOAT (Flexible Levitation on a Track), that leverages diamagnetically levitated robots. Unlike current lunar robot concepts that use wheels (SEV, RASSOR), legs (Spidernaut), or hybrid wheels-on-legs for mobility, FLOAT robots are solid-state (no motors, gearboxes, or other moving parts) and consist only of permanent magnets connected in planar arrays levitating to minimize lunar dust abrasion / wear over a flexible PCB track that generates electromagnetic thrust. Results show that FLOAT robots can maintain extremely low power requirements over a range of terrains – using <5 W/m
²
or <0.15 W/kg to carry up to 30 kg/m
²
payload on tracks with slopes <40° and curves >5 m in-plane radius or >25 m out-of-plane radius – and use 10-100x less power for transport than wheeled vehicles. For initial system deployment, we designed track deployments robots which can leverage existing lunar robotic systems to un- roll segments of FLOAT tracks onto the lunar regolith. Finally, system design analysis shows the FLOAT concept can serve as a complete transportation system to satisfy the volumetric flow requirements of the RLSO2 mission concept.